
Qass. 
Book. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



iFE AND Works of Abraham Lincoln 



Centenary Edition 

Edited by Marion Mills Miller, Litt. D. 
(Princeton) 

In Nine Volumes: Volume I 




FROM DAGUERRcOrVPE OWNED BY ROBERT T, LINCOLN. COURTESY OF MCLURE'S r.^AG^ZINE 

THE EARLIEST PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN 

At the age of thirty-nine (1848) 



Lincoln the Citizen 

(February 12, 1809, to March 4, 1861) 



By 

Henry C. Whitney 

Author of *' Life on the Circuit with Lincoln 



II 



New York 

The Current Literature Publishing Co. 

1907 






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Copyright, iSoa, by Henry C. Whitney 
Copyright, 1907, by William H. Lambert 



THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS 
RAHWAY, N. J. 



THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

OF 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Written to Jesse W. Fell for Use in 
THE Presidential Campaign of i860 



For printed text of this autobiography, see entr^-, Fell. Jesse 
W., in LETTERS, present edition 



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CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface vii 

The Parents of Abraham Lincoln . , . ix 
By Ida M. Tarbell 

chapter 

I. Lineage, Parentage,* and Childhood . i 

II. Youth . . . . . . . .24 

III. Lincoln as a Laborer .... 49 

IV. Lincoln as a Storekeeper .... 78 
V. Soldier, Surveyor, and Postmaster . 93 

VI. Lincoln's Early Love Romance . . 107 

VII. State Legislator 

VIII. Congressman . 

IX. Citizen and Neighbor 

X. Lawyer .... 

XI. Lincoln's Religion 

XIL Lincoln's Mental and Moral Natures . 20S 

XIII. Free-Soil Advocate 241 

XIV. Attainment of the Presidency . . 254 
XV. Inauguration as President . . . 294 



122 

151 
161 
172 
201 



PREFACE 

No claim is made for the present edition that 
it is unabridged or definitive. The desire has 
been to make a reading and, indeed, working 
edition suited to the needs of the average Ameri- 
can, to whom everything which reveals the 
character of the great President is of interest, 
and anything which does not afford such revela- 
tion, even though penned with Lincoln's hand, 
and signed with his name, is without real asso- 
ciational value. 

For practical considerations the chronological 
sequence of the definitive editions has been sub- 
ordinated to logical sequence. Speeches are ar- 
ranged by themselves, state papers by themselves, 
etc. ; the items of each class being arranged in 
chronological order. Letters are docketed alpha- 
betically by the names of addressees. The edi- 
tion is thus made self-indexing, a desirable char- 
acteristic of a working library. 

For further explanation of the method of book- 
making employed, the reader is referred to the 
prefaces of each volume. Here, or in the imme- 
diate text concerned, will be found the various 
acknowledgments to publishers, collectors, and 
authors for the derivation of material. 

It suffices to say in this preface that Mr. Francis 
D. Tandy has generously given the editor general 
permission to make liberal use of any material in 
his Gettysburg Edition to which others than him- 
self have no prior rights. 



viii PREFACE 

For permission to use the biography of Lincoln 
in the present volume thanks are due to William 
H. Lambert, President of the Lincoln Fellowship. 
He is the owner of the voluminous MS. on Lin- 
coln left by the late Henry C. Whitney, one of 
Lincoln's legal associates and personal and politi- 
cal friends. From this the present work on 
''Lincoln the Citizen" has been extracted. It is 
confidently expected that the public will find in 
this character study a personal view of that most 
human of great men, which is second in general 
interest only to the life of Lincoln by his law 
partner, William H. Herndon, and surpasses this 
in many particular points of keen insight and 
generous appreciation. Mr. Whitney's "Life" 
ends at Lincoln's inauguration. After that the 
biography of the President merges into the his- 
tory of his country, to the many works upon 
which the reader is referred. 

Thanks are extended to The Lincoln Farm 
Association, and particularly to its secretary, 
Richard Lloyd Jones, for permission to use Miss 
Tarbell's article, "The Parents of Abraham Lin- 
coln" as an introduction to "Lincoln the Citizen." 

The mutual helpfulness of these Lincoln asso- 
ciations and publications is the best of tributes 
to the beneficent influence of that great man to 
whom "charity" in the broad sense of loving aid 
and consideration extended to all men was the 
dearest of words and things. In the hope that 
we, too, may share in the honor of promoting 
the fraternal movement which is preparing to 
inaugurate a new century of the higher patriotism 
represented by Abraham Lincoln, we present this 
Centenary Edition of his Life and Works. 



THE PARENTS OF ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN 



IDA M. TARBELL 

Among the many wrongs of history — and they 
are legion — there is none in our American chapter 
at least which is graver than that which has been 
done the parents, and particularly the mother, of 
Abraham Lincoln. Of course, I refer to the 
widespread tradition that Lincoln was born of that 
class known in the South as ''poor whites," that 
his father was not Thomas Lincoln, as his bi- 
ographers insist on declaring, but a rich and cul- 
tured planter of another State than Kentucky, and 
that his mother not only gave a fatherless boy to 
the world, but herself was a nameless child. 
The tradition has always lacked particularity. 
For instance, there has been large difference of 
opinion about the planter who fathered Abraham, 
who he was and where he came from. One story 
calls him Enloe, another Calhoun, another Har- 
din, and several different States claim him. Only 
five years ago a book was published in North 
Carolina to prove that Lincoln's father was a resi- 
dent of that State. The bulk of the testimony 
offered in this instance came from men and 
women who had been born long after Abraham 
Lincoln, had never seen him, and never heard 
the tale they repeated until long after his election 
to the Presidency. Of the truth of these state- 



X PARENTS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ments as to Lincoln's origin no proof has ever 
been produced. They were rumors, diHgently 
spread in the first place by those who for political 
purposes were glad to belittle a political opponent. 
They grew with telling, and, curiously enough, 
two of Lincoln's best friends helped perpetuate 
them — Messrs. Lamon and Herndon — both of 
whom wrote lives of the President which are of 
great interest and value. But neither of these 
men was a student, and they did not take the 
trouble to look for records of Mr. Lincoln's birth. 
They accepted rumors and enlarged upon them. 
Indeed, it was not until perhaps twenty-five years 
ago that the matter was taken up seriously and an 
investigation begun. This has been going on at 
intervals ever since, until I venture to say that 
few persons born in a pioneer community, as 
Lincoln was, and as early as 1809, have their 
lineage on both sides as clearly established as that 
of Abraham Lincoln. It takes, indeed, a most 
amazing credulity for any one to believe the 
stories I have alluded to after having looked at the 
records of his family. Lincoln himself, backed 
by the record in the Lincoln family Bible, is the 
first authority for the time and place of his birth, 
as well as the names of his father and mother. 
The father, Thomas Lincoln, far from being a 
"poor white," was the son o^a prosperous Ken- 
tucky pioneer, a man of honorable and well- 
established lineage who had come from Virginia 
as a friend of Daniel Boone, and had there bought 
large tracts of land and begun to grow up with 
the country, where he was killed by the Indians. 
He left a large family. By the law of Kentucky 
the estate went mainly to the oldest son, and the 
youngest, Thomas Lincoln, was left to shift for 



PARENTS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN xi 

himself. This youngest son grew to manhood, 
and on June lo, 1806, was married, at Beechland, 
Ky., to a young woman of a family well known 
in the vicinity, Nancy Hanks. There is no doubt 
whatever about the time and the place of their 
marriage. All the legal documents required in 
Kentucky at that period for a marriage are in 
existence. Not only have we the bond and the 
certificate, but the marriage is duly entered in a 
list of marriage returns made by Jesse Head, one 
of the best-known early Methodist ministers of 
Kentucky. It is now to be seen in the records of 
Washington County, Kentucky. There is even in 
existence a very full and amusing account of the 
wedding and the fanfare which followed, by a 
guest who was present, and who for years after 
was accustomed to visit Thomas and Nancy. 
This guest, Christopher Columbus Graham, a 
unique and perfectly trustworthy man, a promi- 
nent citizen of Louisville, died only a few years 
ago. 

But while these documents dispose efifectually 
of the question of the parentage of Lincoln, they 
do not, of course, clear up the shadow which 
hangs over the parentage of his mother. Is there 
anything to show that Nancy Hanks herself was 
of as clear and clean lineage as her husband? 
There had been nothing whatever until, a few 
years ago, through the efforts of Mrs. Caroline 
Hanks Hitchcock of Cambridge, Mass., who had 
in preparation the genealogy of the Hanks family 
in America, a little volume was published, show- 
ing what she had established in regard to Nancy 
Hanks. Mrs. Hitchcock had begun at the far end 
of the line — the arrival of one Benjamin Hanks in 
Massachusetts in 1699. 



xii PARENTS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

She discovered that one of his sons, William, 
moved to Virginia, and that in the latter part of 
the eighteenth century his children formed in 
Amelia County of that State a large settlement. 
All the records of these families she found in the 
Hall of Records in Richmond. When the migra- 
tion into Kentucky began, late in the century, it 
was joined by many members of the Hanks set- 
tlement in Amelia County. Among others to go 
was Joseph Hanks with his wife, Nancy Shipley 
Hanks, and their children. Mrs. Hitchcock 
traced this Joseph Hanks, by means of land 
records, to Nelson County, Kentucky, where she 
found that he died in 1793, leaving behind a will, 
which she discovered in the records of Bards- 
town, Ky. This will shows that at the time 
of his death Joseph Hanks had eight living chil- 
dren, to whom he bequeathed property. The 
youngest of these was ''My daughter Nancy," as 
the will puts it. 

Mrs. Hitchcock's first query, on reading this 
will, was : "Can it be that this little girl — she was 
but nine years old when her father died — is the 
Nancy Hanks who sixteen years later became the 
mother of Abraham Lincoln ?" She determined to 
find out. She learned from relations and friends 
of the family of Joseph Hanks still living that, 
soon after her father's death, Nancy went to live 
with an uncle, Richard Berry, who, the records 
showed, had come from Virginia to Kentucky at 
the same time that Joseph Hanks came. A little 
further research, and Mrs. Hitchcock found that 
there had been brought to light through the efforts 
of friends of Abraham Lincoln all the documents 
to show that in 1806 Nancy Hanks and Thomas 
Lincoln were married at Beechland, Ky. Now, 



PARENTS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN xiii 

one of these documents was a marriage bond. 
It was signed by Richard Berry, the uncle of 
the Httle girl recognized in the will of Joseph 
Hanks. Here, then, was the chain complete. The 
marriage bond and marriage returns not only 
showed that Nancy Hanks and Thomas Lincoln 
were married regularly three years before the 
birth of Abraham Lincoln, thus forever settling 
any question as to the parentage of Lincoln, but 
they showed that this Nancy Hanks was the one 
named in the will. The suspicion in regard to the 
origin of Lincoln's mother was removed by this 
discovery of the will, for the recognition of 
any one as his child by a man in his will is con- 
sidered by the law as sufficient proof of pater- 
nity. 

Now what sort of people were Thomas Lincoln 
and Nancy Hanks ? It has been inferred by those 
who have made no investigation of Thomas Lin- 
coln's life that Nancy Hanks made a very poor 
choice of a husband. The facts do not entirely 
warrant this theory. Thomas Lincoln had been 
forced from his boyhood to shift for himself in a 
young and undeveloped country. He is known to 
have been a man who in spite of this wandering 
life contracted no bad habits. He was temperate 
and honest, and his name is recorded in more than 
one place in the records of Kentucky. He was a 
church-goer, and, if tradition may be believed, a 
stout defender of his peculiar religious views. He 
held advanced ideas of what was already an im- 
portant public question in Kentucky, the right to 
hold negroes as slaves. One of his old friends 
has said of him and his wife, Nancy Hanks, that 
they were ''just steeped full of notions about the 
wrongs of slavery and the rights of men, as ex- 



xiv PARENTS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

plained by Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine." 
These facts show that he must have been a man 
of some natural intelligence. He had a trade and 
owned a farm. 

As for Nancy Hanks, less that is definite is 
known of her. In nature, in education, and in 
ambition she was, if tradition is to be believed, 
far above her husband. She was famous for her 
spinning and her household accomplishments, it 
is said. 

It was to these two people, then, that Abraham 
Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809. His 
birthplace was a farm Thomas Lincoln owned, 
and near Elizabeth, Ky. The home into which 
the little chap came was the ordinary one of 
the poorer Western pioneer — a one-roomed cabin 
with a huge outside chimney. Although in many 
ways it was no doubt uncomfortable, there is no 
reason to believe it was an unhappy or a squalid 
one. The log house, with its great fireplace and 
heavy walls, is not such a bad place to live in — 
some of us are thankful to get away into the coun- 
try to one now and then even in winter. Its furni- 
ture was simple, and no doubt much of it home- 
made. The very utensils were of home manu- 
facture. The feathers in the beds were plucked 
from the geese Nancy Lincoln raised. She 
patched her own quilts, spun her own linsey- 
woolsey. No doubt Thomas Lincoln made Abra- 
ham's cradle and Nancy Lincoln spun the cloth 
for his first garments. They raised their own 
corn, dried their own fruit, hunted their own 
game, raised their own pork and beef. It was the 
hard life of the pioneer where every man provides 
for his own needs. It had discomforts, but it had, 
too, that splendid independence and resourceful- 



PARENTS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN xv 

ness which comes only from being sufficient to 
your own needs. 

That the two people who endured its hardships, 
and made in spite of them a home where a boy 
could conceive and nourish such ideals and en- 
thusiasms as inspired Abraham Lincoln from his 
early years should have their names darkened by 
unfounded suspicions is a cruel injustice against 
which every honest and patriotic American ought 
to set his face. 



LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

CHAPTER I 

LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, AND CHILDHOOD 

In the year 1619, in the then considerable, 
rudely built, and socially isolated city of Nor- 
wich, the shire town of Norfolk County, Eng- 
land, in one of the humble families, was born a 
child who, in due course of time, received the 
baptismal appellation of Samuel Lincoln. 

During the same year, at Jamestown, a newly 
founded hamlet in the wilderness of North 
America, a vessel, in stress of want, cast anchor 
in the river and oflFered in exchange for supplies, 
as their sole vendible property, sundry human 
chattels, which the Lieutenant-Governor of the 
Colony, then in com.mand, chiefly from consid- 
erations of humanity to the destitute sailors, ac- 
cepted, and the transaction was deemed of suf- 
ficient consequence to be thus jotted down in the 
sober chronicles of a town gossip : ''About the last 
of August came in a Dutch man of warre that 
sold us twenty negass/' The vessel, thus re- 
lieved, proceeded home, and, coincident with its 
arrival in Holland, an incident occurred in a 
neighboring harbor, which is thus narrated by 
the local historian : 

So they left that goodly and pleasant City of Leyden, 
which had been their resting place for above eleven 



2 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

years : but they knew that they were pilgrims and 
strangers here below, and looked not much on these 
things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest 
Country where God had prepared for them a City (Heb. 
xi. i6) and therein quieted their spirits. When they 
came to Delfs-Haven, they found the ship and all things 
ready, and such of their friends as could not come 
with them, followed after them, and sundry came from 
Amsterdam to see them shipt, and to take their leavs 
of them. . . . But the tide (which stays for no man) 
calling them away that were thus loathe to depart, their 
reverend pastor falling down on his knees, and they all 
with him, with watery cheeks, commended them with 
most fervent prayers unto the Lord and his blessing; 
and then, with mutual embraces and many tears, they 
took their leavs one of another, which proved to be 
the last leave to many of them. 

These several events did not appear to have 
any interrelation, but to be as remote in their 
moral as in their geographical association ; but a 
retrospective glance reveals the truth that these 
incidents were acts in the same drama, cantos 
in the same epic, complementary in the moral 
world, the bane and antidote of the greatest 
moral offence of modern days. 

When Samuel Lincoln attained the age of 
eighteen, he joined in the migration to New Eng- 
land then rife, and landed at Salem in Massa- 
chusetts, where he became an apprentice to Fran- 
cis Lawes, a weaver, remaining until he attained 
his majority, when he shouldered his bundle and 
made his way on foot through the wilderness 
where now are Swampscott, Lynn, Chelsea, Bos- 
ton, Braintree, and Quincy, to the hamlet of 
Hingham, which had been founded in the fall of 
1635. In this same little hamlet, there had set- 
tled, in the year 1636, Thomas Lincoln, the 
miller, Thomas Lincoln, the cooper, and Thomas 
Lincoln, the weaver, the latter being a brother 



LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD 3 

to Samuel; and in 1638, Thomas Lincoln, the 
farmer, and his brother Stephen, settled there. 
All came from the county of Norfolk, England: 
Thomas, the weaver, from Hingham, Samuel 
from Norwich, Thomas, the farmer, and Stephen 
from Windham. 

A great-grandson of Thomas, the cooper, was 
Benjamin, a Major General in the Revolutionary 
War, the same who received the surrender of 
Cornwallis at Yorktown, who also quelled 
''Shays' " RebeUion in Western Massachusetts 
in 1787, and to whom, when Knox retired, was 
tendered the position of Secretary of War in 
Washington's Cabinet, which honor he de- 
clined. Another descendant of Samuel Lin- 
coln was Levi Lincoln, who was a member of 
Congress and Attorney General of the United 
States in Jefferson's Cabinet from March 
5, 1801, to December 23, 1805. President Madi- 
son appointed him a Justice of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, but Lincoln was 
obliged to decline the appointment on account 
of a failure of his eyesight. A son of this Lin- 
coln was named Levi also. He filled many high 
offices, including that of Governor of Massachu- 
setts from 1825 to 1834, and Member of Con- 
gress from 1835 to 1841, and was prominently 
mentioned as a candidate for President of the 
United States. He had a brother, Enoch, who 
was a Member of Congress from 1818 to 1826, 
and Governor of Maine from 1827 till his death. 
These illustrious men were cousins of Abraham 
Lincoln in a remote degree. The similarity of 
their Hebraic names to those of the immediate 
ancestry of the President cannot fail to be 
noticed. 



4 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

Samuel Lincoln had ten children, one of whom 
was Mordecai, Avho was born at Hingham in 
1657, and became a blacksmith at Hull, where he 
married, and in 1704 removed to the neighbor- 
ing town of Scituate, where he established a fur- 
nace for the smelting of ore. He was a man of 
substance, and in his will bequeathed lands in 
both Hingham and Scituate, a saw- and grist- 
mill, iron works, and considerable money ; he also 
made provision for a collegiate education for 
three grandsons. Of his five children, Mordecai 
Jr. the eldest removed from Scituate, when his 
eldest son, John, was born, to Monmouth County, 
New Jersey, and afterwards to Chester, Penn., 
and Berks County in Pennsylvania in due suc- 
cession. 

The son, John, had five sons, named respec- 
tively John, Thomas, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
together with daughters. In 1758 he removed 
to the northern part of Augusta County, Vir- 
ginia, which county was, in 1779, detached and 
joined to Rockingham County. 

The son, Abraham, migrated to the northwest 
part of North Carolina, to the waters of the Ca- 
tawba River, where he married Miss Mary Ship- 
ley, by whom he had three several sons, named, 
respectively, Mordecai, Josiah, and Thomas ; 
and, during or about the year 1780, emigrated 
with several families of the Berrys and Shipleys 
to Kentucky, which, though known as *'the dark 
and bloody ground," by reason of the many In- 
dian massacres, was at that time attracting much 
attention through reports of its extreme fertility 
made by such explorers as Boone, Newton, and 
Clark, the explorations of the former commenc- 
ing in 1769. 



LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD 5 

There were eight famiHes in all, and these, 
when they arrived to within twenty-five or thirty 
miles southeast of Crab Orchard, were attacked 
by Indians, and some of the party were wounded, 
and one woman taken prisoner. These immi- 
grants settled in Jefferson and Washington 
Counties, Kentucky, but the specific settlement 
of Abraham Lincoln is somewhat obscured by 
doubt. One excellent biographer fixes the loca- 
tion in Mercer County, but his authority therefor 
does not appear. Several others, repeating each 
other, name Floyd's Creek in what is now known 
as Bullitt County, and, in point of fact, Abra- 
ham Lincoln did on May 29, 1780, enter four 
hundred acres of land on Long Run, a branch of 
Floyd's fork of Salt River, whence there is rea- 
son to suppose that upon that land he made his 
settlement. Hon. J. L. Nail, a great-grandson of 
the pioneer, and a grandson of his daughter 
Nancy, who married William Brumfield, avers * 
that his ancestor settled at the present site of 
Louisville, and adduces in support of his state- 
ment the concurrent evidence of his great-grand- 
mother, the wife of the pioneer, and who lived to 
the great age of one hundred and ten years, and 
of his grandmother ; also of his great-uncle, Mor- 
decai Lincoln, all of whom he has heard talk of 
the subject frequently. 

After settling in Kentucky, there were added 
to his family two daughters, Mary, who after- 
wards married Ralph Crume, and Nancy, who 
thereafter married William Brumfield; and in 
1784, while he was at work in the clearing, 
attended only by his youngest son, Thomas, the 
father of the President, he was fatally shot by an 
* This history was written in 1892. 



6 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

Indian. The eldest son, Mordecai, shot and 
killed the savage just as he picked up little 
Thomas and was starting to make off with his 
prize, and so the boy was saved to become the 
father of the President. 

There is a dispute about the location of the 
scene of the tragedy. Mr. Nail writes : 

The newspaper article stating that my great-grand- 
father Lincoln was killed on Lincoln's Run is altogether 
wrong: he was killed at "Beargrass" fort, as 1 got it 
directly from my grandmother, who was in the fort at 
the time, and knew what she was talking about. While 
he lived in the fort, he entered four hundred acres of 
land on Floyd's fork of Salt Run in what is now Bullitt 
County, Kentucky. . . . My great-grandmother, Mary 
Shipley Lincoln, moved with my grandfather, William 
Brumfield, who married her daughter Nancy, to Hardin 
County, Kentucky, and lived the balance of her long 
life with them, and died, when I was a good big boy, 
at the age of one hundred and ten years. 

The grandmother and great-grandmother 
were both present at this tragedy, which must 
have impressed itself deeply upon their minds. 
So likewise must it have been ever present to the 
mind of his grand-uncle, Mordecai, who was one 
of the chief actors in that frontier tragedy ; and 
the writer of the above, a highly intelligent and, 
in all respects, honorable man, professes to have 
heard it often talked of in the family circle. Un- 
der ordinary circumstances this would be his- 
torically conclusive, and certainly as well attested 
as historical facts usually are ; while nobody fixes 
authoritatively any different locality. 

As militating against the above theory is the 
following: Abraham Lincoln was killed in 1784. 
In May, 1780, the town of Louisville was char- 
tered by the Virginia Legislature, and a tract of 



LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD 7 

one thousand acres plotted into half-acre lots, the 
boundaries of the thousand acres being First and 
Twelfth Streets, and Main and Chestnut Streets. 
A large number of the lots were immediately sold 
at auction; and in 1782 there were a hundred 
householders there, and in 1783 a general store 
was established. In 1782 a fort was erected and 
designated "Fort Nelson," but nowhere spoken 
of as the ''Beargrass" Fort; and in all the his- 
tories of Louisville which profess to include all 
names of the early pioneers, no mention what- 
ever is made of Abraham Lincoln. 

Indeed, in 1784, the date of the pioneer's death, 
a prosperous village of between 500 and 1,000 in- 
habitants was located at or near the alleged site 
of the murder. 

The Washington County Herald (Springfield, 
Ky.), deriving its information from old citizens, 
fixes the site of the tragedy at "Lincoln's Run," 
about five miles northwest of Springfield. I in- 
cline to think this is correct, although I have 
great faith in Mr. Nail and his general accuracy 
about these matters. 

At this time the Virginia law of primogeniture 
was in force, and the four hundred acres on 
Floyd's Creek, became vested in Mordecai, the 
eldest son. The widow, with her three sons, 
Mordecai, Josiah, and Thomas, and two daugh- 
ters, Mary and Nancy, removed to Washington 
County, and, settling on a creek which from that 
circumstance took the name of "Lincoln's Run," 
remained there till all the children reached the 
age of maturity. 

Mordecai, as I was informed by President Lin- 
coln himself, married a Miss Mudd, who be- 
longed to one of the best families of Kentucky. 



8 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

He afterwards became Sheriff of Washington 
County and likewise represented the same county 
in the Legislature, He then removed to Gray- 
son County, Kentucky, and ultimately to Han- 
cock County, Illinois, where he died.* Josiah, 
the second of this name, removed early in life 
to Harrison County, in southern Indiana, the 
second county east of that in which his brother 
Thomas afterwards settled and there died. The 
eldest daughter, Mary, married Ralph Crume in 
Washington County, and removed to Brecken- 
ridge County in Kentucky, where they finally 
died. Nancy, the youngest daughter, married 
William Brumfield in Washington County and 
thereafter removed to Hardin, where they ulti- 
mately died. 

The widow of Abraham Lincoln Sr. took up 
her abode with her youngest daughter, Nancy 
(Lincoln) Brumfield, and removed with her to 
Hardin County, Kentucky, where she died at the 
age of one hundred and ten years, being buried 
at Old Mill Creek burying-ground. Mordecai's 
descendents I have no trace of, except Mrs. 
Levi Smith, who lived a few years since near 
Springfield, Ky. The Hon. J. L. Nail, a grandson 
of the youngest daughter, Nancy (Lincoln) 
Brumfield, has been a member of the Kentucky 
Legislature and is now a merchant in south- 
western Missouri. A granddaughter of the eldest 
sister, Mary (Lincoln) Crume, has been an in- 
mate of Mr. Nail's family for thirty-six years past. 

While Mr. Lincoln was a Member of Congress 

* "Old men who personally knew Uncle Mordecai 
said that he was a very smart man and exceedingly 
popular ; but was a sporting man and somewhat reck- 
less."— A^o//. 



LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD 9 

In 1848, in reply to inquiries made as to his pedi- 
gree, he thus wrote to Hon. Solomon Lincoln of 
Hingham (since deceased) : ''My father's name 
was Thomas, my grandfather's was Abraham, 
the same as my own. My grandfather went 
from Rockingham County, in Virginia, to Ken- 
tucky about the year 1782. And two years af- 
terwards was killed by the Indians. We have 
a vague tradition that my great-grandfather went 
from Pennsylvania to Virginia, and that he was 
a Quaker. Further than that, I have never 
heard anything. It may do no harm to say that 
Abraham and Mordecai are common names in 
our family." And in a subsequent letter written 
during the same year, he says : "I have mentioned 
that my grandfather's name was Abraham. He 
had, as I think I have heard, four brothers, Isaac, 
Jacob, Thomas, and John." * 

Thomas Lincoln, the youngest son, who was 
with his father when the latter lost his life, was 
by this circumstance, as well as from the paucity 
of common schools, deprived of an opportunity 
to acquire an education, and never attended 
school in his entire life. The era of childhood 
was to him one of almost unrestrained liberty, 
privation, and adventure. He was bom and 
spent his entire life on the frontier ; had no cul- 
ture and was ignorant of the restraints and refine- 
ment of enlightened society. He was, however, 
a man of good native abilities and kindly instincts, 
but with no system, progress, or normal business 
qualities; hence he made but little provision for 
the future and took little thought of the morrow. 

William G. Greene, who spent one day with 

* See also autobiographical data, sketches, etc., in 
Letters (to Fell, Hicks, et al.) in present edition. 



lo LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

him, and felt interested to make a study of him, 
avers that he was a man of great native reason- 
ing powers and fine social magnetism, reminding 
him of his illustrious son ; but that, having re- 
ceived no education, drill, or discipline, he knew 
nothing of persistency of effort in a continuous 
line, nor of the laws of thrift or financial cause 
and effect; that he evidently was industrious, 
though shifting rapidly from one thing to another ; 
that he was candid and truthful, popular with his 
neighbors, and brave to temerity. He was very 
stoutly built, about five feet ten inches high, and 
weighed nearly two hundred pounds ; his desire 
was to be on terms of amity and sociability with 
every one. He had a great stock of border anec- 
dotes and professed a marvellous proclivity to 
entertain by "spinning yarns" and narrating his 
youthful experiences.^ He was an inveterate 
hunter, as, indeed, were most of the pioneers. 
In both Kentucky and southern Indiana, in the 
vicinage of his homes, every man and boy owned 
a rifle, and it was unsafe and also unusual to go 
through the woods unarmed. Game, particularly 
deer, was one of the chief staples of existence. 
Before Thomas had attained his majority, he 
wended his way on foot across the Cumberland 
Mountains, to eastern Tennessee, where he 
worked on a farm for his uncle Isaac, who had 
settled on one of the affluents of the Holstein 
River. Upon his return to Kentucky, he entered 
as an apprentice to learn the cabinetmaker's trade 



* "I have known several old men who knew Thomas 
Lincoln intimately. They said he had (as they termed 
it) good strong horse sense and was an excellent man. 
He was a cabinet maker and was thrifty when he lived 
in Kentucky." — Nail. 



LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD n 

in the shop of one Joseph Hanks, in EHzabeth- 
town, and while thus engaged, he became enam- 
ored of a niece of his employer by the name of 
Nancy Hanks. 

It would appear that there were four families 
which had been closely and intimately associated 
in geographical propinquity in at least two States, 
if not in three or four, and were also equally as- 
sociated in marital bonds. They were the Lin- 
colns, Hankses, Berrys, and Shipleys. They prob- 
ably were all of Quaker proclivities, and among 
that worthy class there is a spiritual intimacy 
unknown in other clanships. The Lincolns and 
Hankses had been neighbors in Berks County, 
Pennsylvania. The Berrys, Shipleys, Lincolns, 
and Hankses had owned a common tie of spir- 
itual community in Virginia, North Carolina, and 
Kentucky. One Richard Berry had emigrated 
from North Carolina to Kentucky in the same 
party with Abraham Lincoln Sr. They were 
connected by the fact of both having married sis- 
ters of the name of Shipley. A daughter of 
Richard Berry Sr. had married into the Hanks 
family in Virginia, the issue being one child, a 
girl, named Nancy. When the father died the 
widow, Lucy (Berry) Hanks, migrated with her 
brothers-in-law to Kentucky, where she married 
a second time, this husband being one Henry 
Sparrow, brother to Thomas Sparrow who had 
espoused her first husband's sister. Prior to this 
second marriage, the widow and child had found 
a temporary home v/ith Thomas Sparrow's 
family, and after the marriage, Nancy, being 
greatly endeared to her aunt, continued to live 
there for a time. Dennis Hanks, a cousin, being 
a child of still another Hanks, was also an in- 



12 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

mate of the same household. The child Nancy- 
was indifferently called by her true name of 
Hanks and by her mother's new name, it being 
also her aunt's name, of Sparrow, and by the 
latter name both John and Dennis Hanks knew 
her, and Mrs. Hanaford, in her interesting sketch 
of Mr. Lincoln's life, so designates her, on the 
authority of the two Hankses. 

After living with her Aunt Sparrow for a 
while she made a visit to her maternal grandfa- 
ther, Richard Berry, then living at Mattingly's 
Mills, on Beech fork, in Washington County, 
and was induced by him to maintain her abode 
there, which she did till she was married. 

It may be mentioned that, prior to the betrothal 
of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, he had 
courted another girl in Hardin County, one Sallie 
Bush, but that for some reason the courtship 
either did not mature into an engagement, or else 
the engagement was broken off; for both par- 
ties entered into other matrimonial alliances. 
Thomas Lincoln's marriage with Nancy Hanks 
was a highly respectable one, but his alliance 
with Sallie Bush would have been more re- 
cherche, for the latter was connected with the 
elite of that part of Kentucky, as I shall here- 
after show. No especial reasons are disclosed 
by history why Nancy did not make her home 
with her mother, but it is probable that, when she 
had so many acceptable homes, she selected that 
which was most agreeable ; that in the depressing 
poverty incident to the frontier families in those 
days, the step-father might have found it a re- 
lief to be disencumbered of the charge and ex- 
pense of a child to whom he was bound by only 
a conventional tie. So it is not strange that 



LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD 13 

this forlorn child was reared in the home of an 
aunt, and her grandfather committed her destiny 
to the keeping of this uncouth apprentice, who 
was as ignorant as a cave-man of the duties and 
responsibihties of civiHzed Hfe. At this time 
Nancy was in her twenty-third year. She was 
narrow-chested, and of consumptive tendencies. 
Her complexion was sallow, indicative of bad 
nutrition. Her hair was dark, her eyes were 
gray, her forehead was high, and her demeanor 
was reserved and sad. Moreover, in that primi- 
tive region, where there were scarcely any 
schools even for the better order of people, she 
had somehow picked up considerable education. 
She was intellectual in her ambition and tenden- 
cies, and she had an excellent memory, good 
judgment, and a fine sense of propriety. Her 
nature seems to have been conservative rather 
than aggressive. Although her ambition was 
above her surroundings and apparent destiny, 
she seems to have considered her humble lot and 
condition in life to be inevitable, and to have 
made no radical effort to change it, resting con- 
tent in faithfully performing her vv^ifely and 
motherly duties. While biographers have not 
hesitated to shake the genealogical tree vigor- 
ously, in order to bring down all possible fruit 
availing in connection with the paternal ancestry 
of the martyred President, scarcely more than a 
passing glance has been bestowed upon the pen- 
dent boughs which could illustrate the pedigree 
of the maternal line ; the general statement being 
that the mother's name was Nancy Hanks, a 
daughter of Lucy Hanks. The President him- 
self states it somewhat differently thus : "My par- 
ents were both born in Virginia of undistin- 



14 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

guished family — second families, perhaps, I 
should say. My mother, who died in my tenth 
year, was of a family of the name of Hanks." 
(This, in its normal and natural sense, impHes 
that his mother was born in a family, of course.) 

All persons are aware that there is a tendency 
either of adulation or detraction to locate the 
origin of notable persons, either in the Ely- 
sium of the blest or the limbo of the infernal. In 
the infinite stretch and realms of the imagination, 
it is not allowable that a man of unique his- 
tory should have other than a unique origin. 
(Romulus and Remus were suckled by a she- 
wolf; Csesar descended from Anchises and 
Venus ; and Napoleon from Agamemnon or 
Achilles.) Despite all fable, Mr. Lincoln had an 
origin, on both the maternal and paternal line, 
common to mankind in general. No fact is bet- 
ter avouched than that Richard Berry Sr., the 
grandfather of the Richard Berry Jr. who be- 
came surety on Thomas Lincoln's marriage bond, 
was also the grandfather of Nancy Hanks. It 
was so thoroughly well understood in Washing- 
ton County, Kentucky, as never to have been 
questioned. It was once disputed whether 
Abraham Lincoln was born in Washington or 
Hardin County; but the fact above given was 
never, and is not now, in question among an en- 
tire community who were in a position to know ; 
and if confirmation is needed, the facts that she 
made her home there as one of the family, that 
Richard Berry Jr., her cousin, became her guard- 
ian and also became surety on the marriage bond, 
confirm it. 

Equally conclusive is the testimony of Hon. 
J. L. Nail, a grandson of Thomas Lincoln's sister 



LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD 15 

Nancy, and by far the most intelligent archseolo- 
gist and genealogist of that branch of the Lin- 
coln family which includes the President. He 
says absolutely, and with emphasis and circum- 
stance, that Nancy Hanks was an orphan girl at 
a tender age, her father being a Hanks and her 
mother a Berry, daughter of old Richard Berry. 
The latter and Abraham Lincoln Sr. married sis- 
ters by the name of Shipley, which made the Pres- 
ident and his wife remote cousins, having the 
same great-grandfather and great-grandmother. 
Mr. Nail says specifically : 

Nancy Hanks's mother was a Berry, and she married 
a Hanks, who was the father of Nancy ; he died in 
Virginia and his widow married Sparrow, and Richard 
Berry raised Nancy. I had an uncle John N. Hill who 
died in Hardin County in 1883 at the age of one hun- 
dred years. He was one of the most intelligent and 
best posted men in Kentucky history I ever knew in my 
life, and this was his version of the relationship, as 
well as that of my grandfather William Brumfield and 
grandmother Nancy (Lincoln) Brumfield. Uncle Hill 
was not related to the Lincoln family, and, of course, 
had nothing to cover up or conceal. He lived in Wash- 
ington County in his younger days, right by the side of 
the Lincoln and Berry family; and was at the wedding 
when Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were married. 
. . . When Lincoln was nominated for President, there 
were quite a number of old men living in Hardin 
County, among whom was old Mr. Riney, to whom the 
President went to school, and they knew the Lincoln 
and Berry families and took delight in rehearsing mat- 
ters they knew in connection with them, and this was 
their version and understanding. It indeed was not 
disputed and was not discussed adversely — simply as- 
sumed as a well-known fact. 

One of the most prominent citizens of Spring- 
field, Ky., Squire R. M. Thompson, feeling the 
honor of his own family trenched upon by the 



i6 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

innuendo in Lamon's Life of Lincoln concern- 
ing Lincoln's parents, himself searched for and 
found the marriage certificate of Thomas Lincoln 
and Nancy Hanks; and in testifying under oath 
about it, embraced this paragraph : *'The mother 
of Nancy (Hanks) Lincoln, who was the mother 
of President Abraham Lincoln, was an own 
cousin of affiant's mother." This was on the 
theory that she was a Berry. I repeat, the gen- 
eral and the particular repute that Lucy Hanks 
was a Berry is as firmly grounded as any fact 
in Washington County. The Herald of that 
county once stated that she was a Shipley. This 
was a natural mistake, her grandmother being a 
Shipley, and the Shipleys and Berrys being 
closely interrelated; her grandmother and Presi- 
dent Lincoln's grandmother were sisters, and, of 
course, their great-grandparents in that time 
were identical. 

I am not unaware that John and Dennis Hanks 
call her a Sparrozu, but they also call the Presi- 
dent's grandfather Mordecai. There is no real 
basis for either statement, except as I have stated, 
nor am I unaware that a higher authority than 
the Hankses does not concur in my arrangement 
of the pedigree of Nancy Hanks ; but it is a 
maxim in equity that ''what ought to be done is 
considered as done," and inasmuch as this state- 
ment, well known to close students of Lincolnian 
biography, ought not to have been made, or, if 
made, ought not to be printed, it should be 
treated as not made at all; and besides, however 
wise or interested a party might be in general, 
it does not follow that he knew any more (or 
even as much) about such a matter than others. 
In addition to all, in a conflict of evidence, that 



LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD i7 

which is most weighty, probable, and convincing, 
and especially if cumulative, should prevail. 

The masterpiece of Lincoln biography, Nico- 
lay's, accepts Mr. Nail's version of Lincoln's 
paternal grandmother's identity as conclusive 
over that of Secretary Welles, who was related 
to the New England branch of the Lincoln family, 
and, by reason of his coign of vantage, should 
know whereof he affirmed. This distinguished 
and accurate kinsman had equal opportunities to 
know the pedigree in the maternal line, and his 
comments in that matter are as reliable as are the 
others. Superimposed upon all is the universal 
knowledge of the fact at the paternal home of 
the party herself, and which is cumulative and 
no wise dependent upon the clear and otherwise 
derived knowledge of Mr. Nail. I think I have 
read all that has been published on this subject; 
and, while it is of none but speculative interest, 
it is due to history as well as to the memory of 
a woman who should be revered by the civilized 
world everywhere, that her own and her mother's 
honor and reputation should be assured. Mr. 
Lincoln says his mother was born of an undistin- 
guished family, and I claim no more, nor should 
the world believe any less.* I myself know one 
member of the family to have been the wife of 
a LTnited States Judge and another to have been 
the wife of a Governor of Kansas and a United 
States Minister. It was an humble but respect- 
able family in all respects. 

All things being ready, as well in the pro- 

* Secretary Welles states that he has heard President 
Lincoln say, more than once, that when he laid down his 
official life he would endeavor to trace out his genealogy 
and family history. 



i8 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

gram of destiny as in the few crude arrange- 
ments of the parties directly involved, Thomas 
Lincoln journeyed in a primitive way to the home 
of Richard Berry, the prospective bride's grand- 
father, at Mattingly's Mills, and, together with 
Richard Berry Jr., cousin to the bride-elect, vis- 
ited the county-seat of Washington County, and 
executed a marriage bond of the following tenor 
and import, viz. : 

Know all men by these presents, that Mr. Thomas 
Lincoln and Richard Berry are held and firmly bound 
unto his excellency the Governor of Kentucky in the 
just and full sum of Fifty pounds current money; to 
the payment of which well and truly to be made to 
the said Governor and his successors, we bind our- 
selves, our heirs, etc., jointly and severally, firmly by 
these presents. Sealed with our seals and dated this 
loth day of June 1806. The condition of the above 
obligation is such that whereas there is a marriage 
shortly intended between the above bound Thomas 
Lincoln and Nancy Hanks for which a license has been 
issued. Now if there be no lawful cause to obstruct 
the said marriage, then this obligation to be void, else 
to remain in full force and virtue in law. 

Thomas Lincoln [seal] 
Richard Berry [seal] 
Witness: John H. Parrott. 

And the Rev. Jesse Head, D. M. E. C, certifies 
that on June 12, 1806, he joined Thomas Lincoln 
and Nancy Hanks in marriage. According to 
an article published in The American, a Phila- 
delphia magazine published a few years since, it 
would appear that one John Hank lived on what 
is now the Perkiomen turnpike, six miles east 
of Reading in Exeter Township, in Pennsyl- 
vania, and within half a mile of the residence of 
IVIordecai Lincoln, who would be the great-great- 
grandfather of the President, and that Hank emi- 



LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD 19 

grated to Augusta County in Virginia with John 
Lincoln, the great-grandfather of the President. 
In 171 1, in Berks County, Pennsylvania, John 
Hank married one Sarah Evans and they had a 
son born the next year, who was living as late 
as 1730, as his father mentions him in his will 
that year. The Friends' (Quakers') record in 
Baltimore, still extant, mentions one John Hanke 
as living in Rockingham County, Virginia, prob- 
ably the same who emigrated from Berks County, 
and in 1787 Hannah, a daughter of John Hanke, 
married one Asa Lupton. The only significant 
fact about this information is that the Lincolns 
and Hankses were alike Quakers and neighbors, 
and if this Hanke was the progenitor of Nancy 
Hanks, it is a coincidence that the ancestors of 
both should have been close neighbors, and that 
a century or more afterwards two members of 
the same families should have united their des- 
tinies with such mighty results. 

The only basis in my view to avouch this John 
Hanke as being the progenitor of the President's 
mother is that the Kentucky Hankses came from 
Virginia, and the rarity of the name, superadded 
to the further fact of the Hankses' and Lincolns' 
intimacy, and the quite seeming probability that 
they might seek the same new home. Thomas 
Lincoln was a second cousin of his wife, as I 
show ; possibly the families also had in another 
branch several generations of neighborhood in- 
timacy. 

It has been assumed by biographers generally 
that immediately upon his marriage Thomas Lin- 
coln brought his JDride to Hardin County, and 
that in that county all three of their children 
were born. The President himself, in his brief 



20 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

sketches of his Hfe, says he was born in Hardin 
County.* 

* It is a trait common to all men to be interested in 
the place of their birth, and therefore there is every 
reason to believe that the President knew his own 
birthplace. He had reached the age of clear mind and 
sound memory before his mother died, and it is most 
unbelievable that he would have received any confus- 
ing instruction on this point from her. Moreover, 
his stepmother was an intimate friend of his own 
mother at the time of his birth, and she lived until 
long after he had reached manhood, and in all these 
years she supported the mother's story of his birth. 
This ought to be authority enough for any biographer. 
Indeed, no biographer has so far ventured to set up a 
counter claim. But in spite of this authority and that 
of nearly nine hundred copyrighted biographies of 
President Lincoln, there are still a few people in 
Washington County, Kentucky, who claim that 
Abraham, the second child of Thomas and Nancy 
Lincoln, was born in that county. It is a matter of 
record that the first child — Sarah — was born in Eliza- 
bethtown, which is in Hardin County, and that Thomas 
and Nancy Hanks Lincoln moved from there to the 
farm near Hodgenville, then also in Hardin County, 
and now in LaRue County, where Lincoln, his 
mother, and his stepmother all claimed he was born, 
and where a second son, named William Brumfield 
Lincoln after his uncle Brumfield, probably began his 
short life, which ended at the age of four or five years. 
In the summer of 1906, the founders of the Lincoln 
Farm Association, a patriotic body organized to 
preserve the Lincoln birthplace farm as a national park, 
made a thorough investigation of the Washington 
County claims. Their lawyers found in all that county 
but four people who claimed to have any knowledge of 
the matter, and each of these stated upon oath that his 
belief arose from the statement made some twenty 
years before by an old citizen over ninety years of 
age, (who had made no assertions as to Lincoln's 
birthplace until his memory had become frail through 
age,) that as a youth he had seen Nancy Hanks Lincoln 
in Washington County with a babe in her arms whom 
he supposed to be Abraham Lincoln. — M. M. M. 



LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD 21 

It is an undisputed fact that Thomas Lincoln, 
within a year or so after his marriage, being 
prompted by a roving disposition, and the land 
hunger which he had inherited from his forbears, 
especially his father, removed his family to a 
patch of ground on which a little clearing had 
been made and a cabin erected, situate on the 
south branch of Nolin's Creek, three miles from 
the present village of Hodgenville, county-seat 
of LaRue County, and that in this rude cabin, in 
this neglected spot, on the twelfth day of Febru- 
ary, 1809, the most illustrious man of his era 
was born. 

The cabin was of the rudest kind even for 
those days. It is needless to attempt to describe 
it, for the present comfortably housed generation 
would deem such description to have been woven 
in the loom of the imagination. It suffices to 
say, which I do reverently, that our Saviour, who 
was born in a stable, had a birthplace scarcely 
less decent than the typical cabin of the "poor 
white" of the South a century ago, and that the 
advents respectively of the despised Nazarene 
and of the Kentucky carpenter's son, the one the 
Saviour of the world, and the other the liberator 
of a race, were achieved alike amid the most 
desolate surroundings, even for the primitive 
conditions of the time. 

In this rude cabin the little stranger lived until 
he had attained his fourth year. As there were 
no immediate neighbors, the parents and the two 
little children were compelled to be company for 
each other, and we can only imagine — for his- 
tory was then engaged on statelier themes, such 
as the career of Napoleon — what their daily life 
could have arrayed of current happiness, as a 



2 2 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

solace for prosaic and uneventful poverty and 
privation. That the mother, with an ambition 
and enterprise far above her situation, could read 
and write, is a basis of fact from which we may 
reasonably infer that she was wont to gather 
her little progeny at her knee and instil into their 
infant minds the rudiments of education which 
would lead them to a better condition of life than 
she had ever known. 

Circumstances rendered it expedient for 
Thomas Lincoln to remove from this uninterest- 
ing place to one more desirable on the banks of 
Knob Creek, an affluent of Rolling Fork, about 
six miles distant from Hodgenville, which re- 
moval occurred in the spring of 1813, when 
young Abraham was four years of age. 

Both father and mother appreciated the value 
and necessity of their children's education, the 
former superficially, the latter substantially and 
practically, and the only means and opportuni- 
ties the country afforded for any means of edu- 
cation were eagerly embraced. One Zachariah 
Riney taught in the immediate neighborhood, 
and to his school Abraham and his sister faith- 
fully went. He was a man of an excellent char- 
acter, deep piety, and a fair education. He had 
been reared as a Catholic, but made no attempt 
to proselyte, and the still existing town of 
Rineysville in Hardin County is a tribute to the 
estimation in which his family is held. He was 
extremely popular with his scholars, and the 
great President always mentioned him in later 
years in terms of grateful respect. At a later 
period, Caleb Hazel, a youth with a little smat- 
tering of education, "took up'' a school some four 
or five miles distant, and the faithful and ambi- 



LINEAGE, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD 23 

tious mother would fix up her Httle ones the best 
she could and send them diurnally on the long 
journey. She was persistent in her determina- 
tion to inculcate education in their youthful 
minds. The father's enthusiasm was spasmodic 
and unreliable ; still he would occasionally glow 
with pride in his educational plans for his bright, 
intelligent boy. At the age of forty-five Lincoln 
told Swett that the simimiim bonum of his father's 
ambition was to give his boy a first-rate educa- 
tion, and that his ne plus ultra of such an educa- 
tion was to *'larn to cipher clean through the 
'rithmetic." 

In 1 816 the land hunger which Thomas Lin- 
coln had inherited from his father, the Virginia 
emigrant, led him to barter his imperfect title to 
his farm for ten barrels of rye whiskey and 
twenty dollars in cash, and go to Indiana on a 
prospecting tour, with a view to emigration. 
Such is the usual explanation of modern scien- 
tific biographers, who find the springs of mo- 
mentous events in human impulses rather than 
in divine foreordination. An ancient chronicler 
would have said: "And the Angel of the Lord 
came to Thomas, and commanded that he take 
the young child and his mother and depart out 
of that coantry." 



CHAPTER II 

YOUTH 

On the Kentucky shore, below Louisville, in 
the midst of Nature's unkempt, umbrageous, and 
solemn solitudes, there debouches into the Ohio 
an affluent whose pellucid waters gave no token 
of the broken hopes, withered ambitions, blasted 
reputations, and shattered political careers which 
its name suggests to the American ear. For this 
is the renowned Salt River of our political myth- 
ology, the stream to whose headwaters are an- 
nually consigned the defeated aspirants for elect- 
ive office, and which is more melancholy than 
the classic Styx in that every political ghost that 
journeys upon it to oblivion must serve as his 
own Charon. 

It was on the "rolling fork" of Salt River 
that Thomas Lincoln, in the fall of 1816, em- 
barked in quest of a new home ; and he pursued 
that stream through its various sinuosities until 
it joined Salt River proper. This stream, how- 
ever, had not yet acquired its baleful reputation, 
and did not have to live up to a bad character. 
So Thomas Lincoln safely steered himself and 
cargo down its course to the great Ohio. Per- 
versely enough, this river belied the favorable 
name by which the early French voyageurs had 
christened it, ''La Belle Riviere." Coming out 
on its turbid tide, Lincoln's boat foundered, and 

24 



YOUTH 25 

the bulk of his Hquid fortune found a watery 
grave. He rescued a portion of it, however, with 
much exertion, and, getting- afloat again with his 
cargo of whiskey, succeeded in navigating the 
Ohio River to a point in Indiana called Thomp- 
son's Ferry. Here he left his goods at a cabin, 
and started through the trackless forest on foot, 
in quest of a site wherectj to found his new 
home. Sixteen miles distant, he came to a place 
which suited his fancy, although it is not unlikely 
that the setting sun and the cravings of hunger, 
warning him to seek a shelter, had some bear- 
ing upon his choice of a location. 

The ''numbers" of his claim were Southwest 
quarter of Section Thirty-two, Town Four 
South, Range Five West. The place thus se- 
lected was near to both Big and Little Pigeon 
Creek, in what was then Perry, but thereafter 
became Spencer County. Having "notched" the 
trees upon the boundaries of his claim, and made 
the improvement required by ''squatter" law, 
viz. : to pile up brush as an inchoate clearing, 
and thus completed his "claim," he returned to 
Knob Creek on foot. Loading his bedding, kitchen 
utensils, and other portable property on two 
borrowed horses, and gathering his Httle family 
about him, he then began his hegira from a State 
where the aristocracy of negro ownership was 
the passport of respectability, to a State where 

The honest man, though e'er sae puir, 
Is king o' men, for a' that ! 

Many scenes, replete with pathos, are pre- 
sented in the realistic drama of the American 
pioneer ; and this was one of them. The fall had 
set in ; the nights were cold, and the adjuncts to 



2 6 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

comfort while camping-out were meagre. The 
father and mother were compelled to walk. The 
two little children, aged respectively nine and 
seven, were uncomfortably disposed among the 
packs with which the horses were loaded. Ar- 
rived at the Ohio River, the horses were sent 
back and the goods, augmented by those which 
had been transported by means of the river, were 
loaded on a hired wagon and hauled out to the 
claim, where they were deposited. Without a 
single domestic animal, three miles from any 
neighbor, with no protection from the approach- 
ing winter storms but the now leafless trees, no 
defence from the cold but an open brush fire, 
and no shelter from the rude weather but the few 
ragged clothes they chanced to have, they pre- 
sent to the imagination a picture more pitiable 
than that of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock, or, 
indeed, of any of the more spectacular scenes of 
pioneer life. 

The first essential enterprise was to construct 
a shelter for his family, and the father went reso- 
lutely at work to fabricate not anything arising 
to the dignity of a cabin but a camp. Of this the 
mode and style of construction were as follows : 
A slightly sloping patch of ground was selected 
where two straight trees stood about fourteen 
feet apart, east and west of each other. The 
pioneer then cut down a number of small straight 
trees, and cut the tops off, so that the finished 
product would be fourteen feet long. Then the 
helpful wife would trim off the superfluous 
branches, and the entire family, two at each end 
of a log, would somehow tug the logs to the 
place needed. Two-thirds of these logs would 
be notched at one end and flattened at the other ; 



YOUTH 27 

and the remaining third would be notched at 
each end. The two trees which had been se- 
lected as corner posts for the structure were de- 
nuded of their bark on the sides facing each 
other, and the prepared logs placed in position 
by building three sides of a crib, pinning the flat 
ends of the logs to the trees by wooden pins, 
to receive which an auger hole had been pre- 
viously bored through the log and into the tree 
itself. Thus the series of three logs superim- 
posed upon each other formed three sides of the 
primitive camp, leaving the south side exposed 
to the weather. A roof of small poles and 
branches, brush, dried grass, and any other suit- 
able material which could be gathered up, com- 
pleted the camp, into which their little furniture 
was disposed, and dried leaves gathered and 
arranged in the two corners for the four oc- 
cupants to repose on when night should spread 
her sable mantle over the quiet solitude. The 
gaps were at leisure filled up with branches, mud, 
and anything which could be procured. A log 
fire kindled and kept up, night and day, in front 
of the camp, completed the establishment. Such 
an aboriginal structure as this served for an entire 
year as a home for the family that included the 
most famous man of modern times. This spe- 
cies of home was not inapt for a pioneer and his 
family in the summertime or in good weather ; 
but when drenching storms came, or a south 
wind drove the smoke into the camp so as to 
compel evacuation by the inmates, it was ex- 
tremely uncomfortable, if not, indeed, intolerable. 
It was, in fact, a hunter's camp, such as city 
men even now are wont to occupy for a habita- 
tion during a few weeks of good weather, for the 



28 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

novelty of a change from civilized life. For a 
mother and young children, during foul and fair 
weather alike, it was, however, the most cruel 
travesty of a home that can well be conceived. 

Indiana had just been admitted as a State, and 
the new dignity was alluring settlers from the 
neighboring States of Kentucky and Ohio. So 
Thomas Lincoln, the pioneer of Pigeon Creek, 
made a journey to Vincennes to make his land 
entry from the government. He walked all the 
way, going and coming. Southern Indiana was 
then a dense virgin forest, having every variety of 
the hard woods indigenous to that zone. "Var- 
mints," as the early settlers termed them — wild- 
cats, opossums, raccoons, etc. — abounded; like- 
wise deer, wild turkeys, grouse, quails, and pheas- 
ants. Indeed, most of the animal food was pro- 
cured by the rifle. 

Nearby the Lincoln settlement was a famous 
*'deer lick" — a low place where saline water ex- 
udes from the ground, and to which wild animals 
were wont to repair for the salt, they themselves 
forming in turn objects of the hunter's quest. 
From this lick the Lincolns derived the chief part 
of their provender. 

Here, in the forest primeval, on the backwater 
of civilization, this little family of four pursued 
their dull round of existence without a solitary 
bubble of the zest of life. They rose with the 
robin and commenced their weary round of 
drudgery. The father felled trees; the mother 
lopped ofif the branches; the little ones piled 
brush, hoed away weeds, and walked a mile to the 
nearest source of water supply, bearing back the 
heavy burden between them. There was not a 
pair of shoes among the four. Home-made 



YOUTH 29 

moccasins served to ward off the snows and 
frosts of winter. 

The united efforts of all the members of this 
little family served to keep the wolf from the 
door and also to show some progress toward a 
more comfortable state of existence; and in one 
year from the date of the first unpromising settle- 
ment in this virgin wilderness, a log cabin, situ- 
ated a few rods distant from the camp, offered 
a better shelter, and gave token of Thomas Lin- 
coln's ambition, and of his advancement towards 
a higher condition of life. 

This cabin was formed of undressed logs, 
about eighteen feet square, with a "stick-and- 
mud" chimney; a hole for egress and ingress, in 
which was hung an untanned deer's hide, to de- 
fend, in some sort, against the assaults of the 
weather; and the only exterior light was ac- 
quired through the imperfect media of the broad 
chimneyplace and the cracks between the logs. 
The table was the flat surface of a bisected log, 
termed a puncheon, into which were inserted four 
legs by means of an auger. In lieu of chairs, 
there were small puncheons resting upon three 
legs. In lieu of bedsteads, stout poles were in- 
serted in the spaces between the logs which 
formed the cabin, the two outer ends being sup- 
ported by a crotched stick, driven into the ground 
floor of the wretched abode. The bedding and 
bedclothes, dishes and cooking utensils were in 
harmony with the cabin and its rustic furniture; 
and stout pins inserted in the logs constituted a 
substitute for the staircase or the "elevator" of 
civilization. This miserable abode was embos- 
omed in brush, and unadorned with any sugges- 
tion of refined rusticity or halo of romance. 



30 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

Lincoln's report of the new country, being rose- 
ate, probably more than facts warranted, in- 
duced some of his Kentucky neighbors to mi- 
grate thither; and accordingly Mrs. Lincoln's 
aunt and uncle, Betsy and Thomas Sparrow, ar- 
rived at the Lincoln place in November, 1817, 
bringing with them Dennis Hanks, who was a 
cousin-german to Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and, of 
course, a second cousin to the future President. 
This family camped in the recently deserted camp 
of the Lincolns, where they remained till they, 
too, could get up in the world as their kinsman 
had done. 

For some time after the settlement in Indiana, 
there was no school in that primitive, sparsely 
settled neighborhood, but when Abraham was 
eleven years of age there was a school opened in 
a log shanty about one and a half miles distant 
from his home, by one Hazel Dorsey, — the term 
"Hazel," which formed a component part of the 
teacher's name, being supposed to refer to a spe- 
cies of twig whose use in the rude schoolroom 
was auxihary to good scholarship. Andrew 
Crawford was Abraham's next teacher, his min- 
istrations occurring in the winter of 1822-3, as 
nearly as can be defined. Finally one Swaney 
opened a school, pronounced by him skiile, about 
five miles from the Lincoln home in 1826, which 
Lincoln attended for a very short time, and these 
three schools in Indiana, and two in Kentucky, 
comprise all that he ever attended ; the total time 
consumed (as Lincoln told Swett) being about 
four months in all. And such schools ! If eru- 
dition was ponderable, all that the entire five 
teachers knew could have been compassed in a 
thimble. The future President himself said: 



YOUTH $1 

''There were some schools, so-called, but no 
qualification was ever required of a teacher be- 
yond reading zvritin , and cipherin to the rule 
of three. If a straggler supposed to understand 
Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, 
he was looked upon as a wizard. There was ab- 
solutely nothing to excite ambition for education. 
Of course, when I came of age, I did not know 
much." 

At the time when Thomas Lincoln settled in 
Indiana, the county was named Perry, and its 
county-seat was known as Troy, on the Ohio 
River, but the country settled so rapidly that 
a new county was formed called Spencer, the 
county-seat of which was Rockport. A few 
years after the advent of the Lincolns, a little 
trading-post was established within less than two 
miles of their home, which, taking its name from 
its principal settler, was denominated Gentryville. 
Corydon, the county-seat of Harrison County, 
was then also the State capital, it having been 
so selected when the State was admitted into the 
Union. There was but one county between Har- 
rison and Perry counties. 

Although Thomas Lincoln had changed his 
residence from a camp to a cahin, it was not an 
extremely radical change from discomfort to 
comfort, for the cabin had neither a door nor win- 
dows; egress and ingress were had through an 
opening which was designed ultimately to ac- 
commodate a door. The house was likewise in- 
nocent of a floor, save the bare and naked earth. 
These omissions appeared all the more signifi- 
cant and objectionable from the better order of 
things in that line, inherent in the surroundings 
of other settlers, who were rapidly settling in the 



V. 



32 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

neighborhood. Poor children ! Young Abe and 
his sister could not but observe with longing eyes 
the newly erected cabins of the newcomers re- 
joicing in puncheon floors, doors from boards 
hewed out of a straight-grained log, with oc- 
casionally a glazed sash to admit light. 

This beautiful Pigeon Creek valley, like all 
sublunary pleasures, had its sting, its fly in the 
ointment, A disease equally to be dreaded with 
the cholera, and very similar alike in its manifes- 
tations and fatality, brooded like a spell over it, 
making it ''a valley of the shadow of death." 
It prevailed in the wooded regions of both In- 
diana and Illinois, and was called, in the homely 
and inaccurate vernacular of those regions, 
"milk sick." It was a mysterious disease, and 
baffied science and medicine alike. In less than 
two years from the settlement of Thomas Lin- 
coln on Pigeon Creek, his wife, and her uncle 
and aunt, all succumbed to this dread disease dnd 
died ; and Thomas Lincoln by the aid of a neigh- 
bor constructed with a whipsaw from the native 
timber coflins for each of these three victims. 
In the primeval forest, the remains of Nancy 
Hanks Lincoln were placed in a rude box, made 
from native lumber, a very much coarser recep- 
tacle than fruit trees are transported in by nur- 
serymen at this day; and in the presence and 
by the aid of a mere handful of the neighbors, 
without ceremony, unanointed and unaneled, 
were committed to the grave. Even the grave 
remained without the slightest attempt at cul- 
ture or adornment until 1879, when Mr. P. E. 
Studebaker of South Bend, Ind., having heard of 
it, proposed to Hon. Schuyler Colfax to head a 
subscription with fifty dollars in order to mark 



YOUTH 33 

the spot with a suitable monument. Colfax as- 
sured him that the sum of fifty dollars alone 
would provide a monument sufficient and in har- 
mony with the surroundings. The philanthro- 
pist thereupon caused to be erected a very neat 
marble monument, although the exact spot 
where the inanimate body crumbled into dust is 
involved in some doubt. It bears this inscrip- 
tion : "Nancy Hanks Lincoln, mother of Presi- 
dent Lincoln. Died October 5th, a.d. 1818, aged 
35 years. Erected by a friend of her martyred 
son, 1879." 

The mother thus commemorated was a woman 
"of sorrows and acquainted with grief." She 
was a child of the frontier, whose whole brief 
life was employed in removing from one frontier 
post to another, and carving out from tlie rude 
wilderness a frontier home. 

In the little group which followed the body of 
this most faithful wife and mother to its last 
abode was one who was not satisfied with this 
heathen burial; and he set himself resolutely at 
work to retrieve this neglect, and to secure to the 
burial of his revered mother an ex post faeto 
ceremony and semblance of a Christian inter- 
ment. In those days, in the frontier, stated and 
periodical ministrations from the sacred desk 
were not an institution on account of the paucity 
and poverty of the people. The pioneers, however, 
were content to accept the pious offices of such 
migratory clergymen as might chance to sojourn 
over Sunday in the neighborhood, in their wander- 
ings. And thus a few years after his mother's 
death, young Abraham with considerable diplo- 
macy for a lad of ten years, contrived to have 
an itinerant preacher named Daniel Elkin deliver 



34 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

a funeral discourse, commemorative of the mer- 
its and humble and unobtrusive virtues of this 
modern Mary — the mother of one charged with 
a mission akin to the Divine ! 

Meanwhile, the desolation of that little humble 
household aroused the sympathy of the few 
neighbors, who ''took turns" in aiding the youth- 
ful housekeeper, but a little turned of eleven 
years of age, to maintain in semi-comfort this 
semblance of a home. Sarah Lincoln, however, 
possessed the heroism and resolution of her de- 
parted mother, and entered with fidelity into the 
duties of the little household, now increased by 
the presence of Dennis Hanks, whose home had 
been broken up by the death of his uncle and 
aunt. 

As must be apparent, a house presided over by 
a child of eleven years could not be expected to 
be strongly suggestive of home comforts. 

That Thomas Lincoln himself was not obliv- 
ious of this is evident from the fact that he gath- 
ered together what little capital he could, spruced 
up a little, and in the ensuing fall set off on a visit 
to the scenes of his youth in Kentucky, to pro- 
cure a wife to solace his lonely hours and to serve 
as a mother to his neglected children. 

As I have said, when he formed his alliance 
with Nancy Hanks, he had paid attention to Sal- 
lie Bush. Sallie had married one Johnston, who 
afterwards became the jailer of Hardin County, 
an office then held in higher honor than it is now. 
Now Mrs. Johnston was not only a rare woman, 
as the sequel fully attests, but she also was a 
most excellent housekeeper, and a faithful and 
devoted mother. Thomas was a shrewd ob- 
server, and the death of Johnston about the time 



YOUTH 35 

he had lost his own companion giving him oppor- 
tunity, with characteristic energy and directness 
of purpose he resolved to lay close siege to the 
affections of the widow and force an early capitu- 
lation. Accordingly, upon his arrival in Eliza- 
bethtown, he at once repaired to the home of the 
fair widow, who lived with her two girls and 
one boy. He must have arranged matters satis- 
factorily in one interview, for the next day he 
married the widow. As a wedding present he 
paid all her small debts, the amount being about 
twelve dollars. On the succeeding day the 
second-hand bride, the second-hand bridegroom, 
three children, and a comfortable load of furni- 
ture and bedding were en route to the new home, 
where the two neglected, motherless, and lonely 
children were doing the best they could, pain- 
fully to wear out the time till the father should 
return with the ''surprise" that he had probably 
promised them. 

Salhe Bush, who was thus predestined to be a 
second mother to the great President, came from 
one of the most numerous and most respectable 
families in that part of Kentucky. One of her 
nephews is Hon. W. P. D. Bush, a leading law- 
yer of Frankfort, Ky., who was the State re- 
porter from 1866 to 1878. Another was Hon. 
S. W. Bush, one of the leading lawyers of Har- 
din County, and a third, Hon. Robert Bush, hold- 
ing a similar rank at Hawesville. A niece was 
the wife of Hon. Martin H. Cofer of Elizabeth- 
town, who was a Circuit Judge of that Circuit, 
and became Judge of the Court of Appeals in 
August, 1874, for the term of eight years, serving 
also as Chief Justice from 1879 till his death. 
This distinguished family were very devoted to 



36 LINCOLN THE CLTIZEN 

their aunt, and also have a high respect for the 
memory of Thomas Lincoln. They resent even 
now any imputation upon his moral worth. He 
was not eminent as a financier, so neither was his 
illustrious son. A granddaughter of one of the 
Elizabethtown merchants has her grandfather's 
account books, which attest that Thomas Lincoln 
was an excellent and prompt customer, if not, 
indeed, an extravagant one, for living in a com- 
munity that used hickory bark for suspenders, he 
at one time indulged in ''one pair silk suspenders, 
$1.50." 

Abraham's inner life was a desert of sorrow 
with an occasional oasis watered by well-springs 
of happiness. And probably the greenest spot 
in his micmory was the sight of his father, re- 
turning after a week's absence, driving a four- 
horse team hitched to a heavily loaded wagon, 
which, on its arrival, diclosed a quantity of 
homely and substantial household goods, and, 
what was even more joy-inspiring, a considerate, 
motherly-looking woman, who, clasping the neg- 
lected boy and girl to her heart, and calling 
them Abe and Sallie, told them that henceforth 
she was to be their mother, and that the three 
children who had climbed down from the load 
and were shyly hiding behind her, were also to 
be their brother and sisters. How Abe's tender 
heart glowed with gladness and gratitude as he 
saw feather-beds and blankets, coverlids and 
tablecloths, chairs and ''stand tables" loaded into 
the small cabin, usurping nearly the whole space ! 

Joy reigned supreme in the little Lincoln cabin 
that evening as the augmented family sat down 
to the first good meal which had graced the lit- 
tle puncheon table since Nancy Hanks had taken 



YOUTH 37 

to her bed with the fatal "milk sick." And as, 
at a late hour, Abe climbed into the loft with a 
companion whom he had already learned to call 
''John," and sank into the tender embrace of the 
most comfortable bed he had ever known, and 
compared notes and experiences with his new 
brother till a late hour, it is safe to assert that 
no such fine and unadulterated happiness ever 
visited him afterwards. 

Mr. Lincoln once told me (in 1856) that John 
D. Johnston, his foster-brother, was about his 
own age, and that he loved him as if he had been 
his own brother ; and yet John grew up to be one 
of the laziest and most shiftless of mortals. He 
constantly appealed to Lincoln for aid for himself 
and his progeny. I myself once strained a point, 
for Lincoln's sake, to save Johnston's son William 
from the penitentiary. And it is to the infinite 
credit of the great President that he adhered to, 
and came to the assistance of, not only his father 
and step-mother, and never deserted them, but 
that his fidelity even to the utterly worthless child 
of this remote connection was equally tenacious. 

Almost the last act he performed in Illinois 
was to visit his step-mother. On the morning 
he started, he urged me to go with him, and, in 
fact, I went with him part way, and I have al- 
ways since regretted that I did not accompany 
him during the entire journey. 

His deep and earnest affection for his step- 
mother was returned in full measure by her. 
*'Abe was the best boy I ever saw or ever expect 
to see," was her summing-up of his character. 
As she parted with him at Charleston, III., on 
the third day of February, 1861, this old lady, 
whose whole life had been one of unobtrusive 



S8 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

goodness, embracing the President-elect, had a 
presentiment that it was their last meeting — a 
premonition which was afterwards so completely- 
fulfilled. She had dimly known by the loose talk 
in her little rustic neighborhood of the mighty- 
issues involved in her loved stepson's election, 
and she already saw, in her prophetic vision, the 
collision of a mighty people, and in this mighty 
conflict she felt that the central and pivotal figure 
could not escape. 

And Abraham Lincoln experienced the ma- 
ternal solicitude, sympathy, and kindness of his 
second mother in all ways. This most excellent 
woman and model step-mother brought comfort- 
able things and essential domestic reforms to 
pass, without any jar or apparent effort. First 
a '"shutter" appeared in the opening for a door; 
next, a puncheon floor was laid, and, anon, a 
half-glazed sash admitted light. Clean beds, 
clean clothes, clean towels, clean tablecloths 
were all in place. The wash-day came regularly, 
good fare graced the table, order was enthroned. 
The family altar was inaugurated, and the family- 
hearth assumed a sacredness begotten of preva- 
lent good cheer, happiness, and the amenities 
which sweeten existence. The dooryard was 
cleaned of unsightly Htter, a brood of fowls lent 
animation to the scene, and material comfort dis- 
sipated the soul's melancholy. If Nancy Hanks 
Lincoln were conscious of the rare fidelity with 
which Sarah Bush Lincoln executed the trust of 
maternal solicitude to her children, her perturbed 
spirit at last found rest. 

New settlers flocked into the neighborhood; 
a store was instituted nearby ; stated religious 
services followed ; systematic social intercourse 



YOUTH 39 

among the young folks ensued ; and ere long, in 
all directions, the ruddy and cheerful blaze of 
hearth-fires, gleaming through clear window 
panes instead of oiled paper, attested the advent 
of real civilization. To the genial requirements 
of this new order of life, Abraham Lincoln was 
no delinquent. The entertaining qualities which 
were captivating in his manhood's prime, found 
exuberant vent in his youthful glow. Boylike, 
he was frivolous rather than sedate, reckless 
rather than responsible, and the mental vigor and 
volume which evolved the Cooper Institute 
speech or yielded the Emancipation Proclama- 
tion, were expended in satirical poems and coarse 
pasquinades, which had no apparent range or 
objects beyond diversion or petty social revenges, 
and were confined to the fleeting moment and 
to the little backwoods coterie which was wont 
to gather in the store or blacksmith's shop at 
Gentryville, or in the *'corn-huskings" or "log- 
rollings" thereabouts. 

Abe was no empty-headed country beau, how- 
ever. He was even then more of a student than 
gallant. A story is told of a conversation he 
had, under idyllic circumstances, with a pretty 
girl of fifteen, where his playing the schoolmas- 
ter instead of the lover was rather resented by 
his fair companion. As the two young people 
sat barelegged on a log and dangled their feet 
in the limpid waters of Little Pigeon Creek, and 
talked the light and frothy chatter of their age, 
the sun sank low in the west, and the little miss 
exclaimed : "See, Abe, the sun's going down !" 
"No," returned Abe with the importance of su- 
perior knowledge, "the sun doesn't go down ; it's 
we that do the sinking." But the pert auditor 



40 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

ended the explanation with the conclusive re- 
joinder, ''Abe, you're a fool." 

At the age of seventeen, he was six and a 
third feet high, his feet and hands were unusu- 
ally large, and his legs and arms disproportion- 
ately long; his head was small and phrenologi- 
cally defective; his body very diminutive for one 
of his height. His walk was awkward ; his ges- 
tures still more so ; his skin was of a dirty yellow- 
ish brown, and shrivelled and baggy, even at that 
age. He was attired in buckskin pants which 
failed to conceal his blue shinbones ; his shirt was 
of a fabric known to pioneer, and to no other life, 
as linsey-woolsey; and in winter he was clad in 
what is known as a warmus; and finally, a coon- 
skin cap, home-made, and moccasins, also home- 
made, protected and decorated respectively his 
upper and nether extremities. He was hizarre- 
looking, even in that primitive community. 

Abraham Lincoln, whether as boy or man, was 
not enamoured of steady, hard work ; he preferred 
a variety of tasks, chiefly mental labor. He was 
by no means lazy, but was fond of frequent 
change. Accordingly, throughout his youthful 
career, he is seen to select such engagements and 
avocations as allowed him to interweave variety 
with industry and mental labor or recreation with 
muscular labor. ''Going to mill" was a favorite 
avocation with him, as it had been with Henry 
Clay, "the Mill-boy of the Slashes." Abe rode 
seven miles to a treadmill, into which, on his ar- 
rival, he put his horse to furnish the power for 
grinding. On one of these occasions young 
Abe's horse kicked him, so that he was uncon- 
scious for quite a while. On recovering his 
senses, he completed a sentence that he was in 



YOUTH 41 

the midst of uttering when the accident took 
place. In after life he was fond of speculating 
upon this psychological phenomenon. 

One of the early settlers paints the moral por- 
trait of this region in the primitive days of its 
settlement in sombre colors. ''The settlers were 
very sociable and accommodating, but there was 
more drunkenness and larceny on a small scale, 
more immorality, less religion, less confidence." 

One of Mr. Lincoln's youthful characteristics, 
and one which adhered to him through life, was 
his uniform kindness to any and all living things. 
A favorite pastime with boys of Pigeon Creek 
v/as to catch a mud "terkle," and put a live coal 
on his back in order to enjoy the diversion of 
witnessing him writhe with pain. The youthful 
humanitarian was wont to inveigh, in emphatic 
terms, against this barbarism ; sometimes putting 
his thoughts and monitions on paper, and read- 
ing them to the boys. Another peculiarity of his 
youth and manhood alike was a habit of superfi- 
cial and desultory reading. A short book he 
might read entirely through ; a long one he would 
read conscientiously for a few chapters, and then 
skim through the rest. Such books as Weems's 
''Washington" he would read through consecu- 
tively ; "Robinson Crusoe" he would not read by 
rote, but would select chapters to suit his fancy, 
and ultimately, perhaps, read all ; "^sop's 
Fables" and Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" he 
would read in patches. 

He was inordinately fond of books, but was not 
fond of consuming a great amount of time with 
any particular one, at any one time. A specific- 
ally verbose book he never read clear through, 
unless at wide intervals of time. He was prone 



42 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

to jot down anything of philosophy, poetry, or 
history which arrested his attention strongly. 
This was not done so much to preserve it, as to 
fix the thought embodied or fact narrated firmly 
in his memory. After writing it he would study 
it, then lay it aside for a time, then recur to it ; 
if, on consideration and reconsideration, it struck 
him as superlatively valuable, he would try to 
retain it. And he had unused sheets of paper, 
copybooks, fly-leaves of books, etc., on which 
he preserved these memoranda, sticking them in 
out-of-the-way places. Books were rare and 
scarce in the days of his youth. Thomas Lincoln 
owned literally none but the Bible. His illus- 
trious son's early acquaintance with any litera- 
ture beyond the domain of primary schoolbooks 
was derived from those which he could borrow 
from neighbors. The sources of supply, how- 
ever, were of an extremely attenuated character. 
A neighbor named Josiah Crawford possessed a 
copy of Weems's "Washington," a highly spiced, 
mendacious, and stupid string of anecdotes of 
the early days in Virginia and elsewhere, euphe- 
mistically termed *'a Life of Washington." Abra- 
ham readily borrowed it, and read and studied 
it of evenings. One night it was ruined by rain, 
and Lincoln at once sought the lender, and re- 
ported the loss, and the superfluous fact that he 
had not the wherewithal to pay. An agreement 
was therefore made that young Abe should pull 
fodder for three days in repayment. There does 
not appear anything out of the way in all 
this; wages were very low then and books very 
rare ; there was no bookstore nearer than Louis- 
ville, and the loss of a needed book in that neigh- 
borhood was well-nigh irreparable. It is even 



YOUTH 43 

doubtful if Crawford would voluntarily have ex- 
changed the book for three days' labor of a lad, 
but Lincoln, somehow, took great umbrage at 
Crawford's animus in the matter, as well as at 
the conditions exacted ; and thereafter was wont, 
for the amusement of the neighborhood to sati- 
rize the offender in the coarsest and most sug- 
gestive doggerel, using Crawford's physical short- 
comings as a text. This reprehensible trait of 
character did not adhere to Mr. Lincoln beyond 
his youthful prime; he abandoned it, as he grew 
and expanded in intellect, together with sundry 
other foibles, and as a man was as magnanimous 
and charitable as he was revengeful and satirical 
as a youth. 

Lying down was Lincoln's favorite attitude 
while reading or studying. This remained a habit 
with him throughout life. He also was fond of 
reading while at table. He always enjoyed read- 
ing aloud, or commenting on a book to a compan- 
ion, whoever he might be. I once knew of his mak- 
ing a pupil of a hostler in his study of Euclid 
on the circuit. He did not, like Archimedes,, 
run through the streets crying ''Eureka !" but he 
was so joyous at his geometrical lesson that he 
must share his happiness, even though he could 
find no better auditor than a stableman. 

In his youth, Lincoln might have been encoun- 
tered in a cabin loft, or under a tree, or anywhere 
in the shade, or in some out-of-the-way place, in- 
tent on his book. He would record his lucubra- 
tions on a wooden fire shovel, then shave it off 
with a draw-knife, and repeat the performance. 
While in the field at work he would be immersed 
in deep thought. As soon as he reached his home 
or his shelter, he would resume his book, if he had 



44 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

one, or his charcoal sketches, if he had none. If 
he could not obtain manual possession of a book 
by borrowing, he would repair to the place where 
it was and thus use it. Among other books which 
he read in that way was the "Statutes of Indiana," 
which one Turnham, a constable, possessed, ex 
oificio. This gave him an inclination toward the 
profession of law. 

Abraham exhibited a proclivity for public 
speaking at an early age ; anywhere that he could 
gather a crowd he was ready with a speech. His 
addresses were generally germane to the sur- 
rounding conditions, and ''sometimes turned out 
a song, and sometimes turned out a sermon." 
Not infrequently, of a Sabbath when the old folks 
were at ''meetin','' the youthful orator would 
edify the young folks at home by an improvised 
sermon. Upon such occasions, he would adopt 
the usual order of religious exercises, the prayer 
alone being omitted. A hymn would be selected 
and svmg by the juvenile audience. His preach- 
ing frequently drew tears from his sympathetic 
auditory, in which, occasionally, he would join. 

In the cornfield, his oratorical powers fre- 
quently were in demand. Often when a resting 
spell came, Abe would mount half-way of the 
fence, and steadying himself on the remainder, 
would thrill or amuse his hearers by a speech, 
sometimes political, sometimes polemical, some- 
times jocular. He never failed to create an in- 
terest; in fact, his oratory was a great nuisance 
to employers who were interested that the work 
should be speedily performed. Another quality 
which adhered to him during his entire life was 
his good humor, leading to a personal popularity 
with those with whom he came in close contact. 



YOUTH 45 

Wherever he worked, he would find his way 
speedily to the kitchen, where he would rock the 
cradle, or draw water, wash dishes, or empty 
slops; meanwhile amusing all present with drol- 
lery or humor. Some of the men were inimical 
to him, but there was not a woman but who was 
extravagant in her laudations, even including Jo- 
siah Crawford's wife, whose husband he had so 
mercilessly lampooned. 

His step-mother thought quite as much of him 
as of her own children ; his step-brother and 
sisters were as devoted to him as to each other, 
while his own sister idolized him. The closer 
the attrition with Lincoln, the more ardent and 
close the cordiality of the friendship. He was 
ever the best of boys and men, and had always 

. . . a tear for pity, 
And a hand open as day for melting charity. 

When he was sixteen years old, he entered 
into the service of one Taylor, who owned and 
operated a ferry franchise across the Ohio at the 
mouth of Anderson Creek. Here Lincoln re- 
mained as a boy-of-all-work, for nearly a year, 
earning six dollars a month ; and at another tim.e 
both he and his sister were hired out to Josiah 
Crawford, the former as a field hand, the latter 
as kitchen-maid. There is hardly a field within 
a radius of two miles of Gentryville in which the 
great Emancipator has not wrought at the hum- 
blest of labor for what would now be deemed in- 
significant wages. 

It was noticeable to companions that, when 
Abraham had attained the age of eleven years or 
thereabouts, he fell into that habit of abstraction. 



46 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

absent-mindedness, and self-introspection which 
constituted so marked and prominent a feature 
in his character in his later days. Whereas he 
presented no appearance of gravity or decorum 
theretofore, he suddenly awoke to a deep sense 
of responsibility; and gravity of manner usurped 
the former characteristics of frivolity and mental 
vacuity. 

Mr. Lincoln was a versatile genius, whether as 
man or boy. His mind was constantly on the 
go; he hopped about from one thing to another, 
never adhering to one thing long. He wrote 
doggerel poetry of no merit whatever ; it was 
sometimes didactic, occasionally philosophical, 
but generally satirical. A single day's labor was 
a composite of story-telling, studying all the 
primitive studies then known to his locale, writ- 
ing Chronicles (as he called them) in derision of 
some one who exhibited ludicrous phases of char- 
acter, doing chores from choice and more robust 
work from compulsion, with occasional lapses 
into earnest and sombre reflection. 

Gentryville was a little world by itself. No 
circus or lecturer ever came within its borders. 
Its inhabitants lived within themselves, and en- 
tertained each other the best they could in a 
social style, and while Lincoln was in great de- 
mand as an entertainer and otherwise, he yet had 
to endure rebuffs which he took as seriously to 
heart as if he had been fashioned in an ordinary 
mould of humanity. A noted instance of the 
truth of the Scriptural adage that "the stone 
which the builders rejected, the same is made the 
headstone of the corner," appeared in the great 
double wedding of two sons of Reuben Grigsby, 
which important occurrence was closed by a gor- 



YOUTH 47 

geous infare. To this great social demonstra- 
tion Abraham was not invited, although every 
other young person in the neighborhood, includ- 
ing his own sister, was. And he took a terri- 
ble social revenge, for he put in commission his 
heaviest batteries of wit and satire, and churned 
up a social convulsion whose effects remained, 
like festering sores, for a long time thereafter. 
Lincoln certainly wielded a free lance in those 
days. An exuberance of animal spirits had to be 
worked off in some way, and Lincoln was the 
Douglas Jerrold and Sydney Smith, combined, of 
the neighborhood about Gentryville. 

The satirical element clove to him through life, 
though he suppressed it generally in his respon- 
sible years. I have known him, however, in the 
privacy of a judicial circle (but very rarely) to 
impale an object disagreeable to him on a sarcas- 
tic lance quite as effectually, and in better style 
than in his youthful days. 

Although there was little in common between 
Lincoln and his father, yet they were alike in 
possessing prodigious strength. The stories 
which are told of Abraham's power in this line 
are doubtless exaggerated, but the fact remains 
that in all the fights in which either he or his fa- 
ther engaged, they prevailed every time, and that 
Abraham was especially sought for when feats 
of muscle were in demand. 

Abraham did, indeed, venture beyond his own 
bailiwick both in the moral and physical world. 
Thus he wrote an elaborate essay on ''Our Gov- 
ernment," when he was but a little turned of sev- 
enteen years old, in which he betrayed a know- 
ledge which could hardly be deemed indigenous 
to Gentryville. He also wrote an article on 



48 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

"Temperance," which was published in a weekly 
paper. 

A village lyceum was one of the institutions 
of the little hamlet of Gentryville. The sessions 
were held in Jones's store, where the auditors 
and disputants sat on the counter, on inverted 
nail kegs, or lolled upon barrels or bags, while 
the wordy contest raged. The questions se- 
lected for discussion were not concrete. At one 
time there would be a debate upon the relative 
forces of wind and water; at another, upon the 
comparative wrongs of the Indian and the negro ; 
the relative merits of the ant and the bee; also 
of water and fire. Then, as later, Lincoln would 
enforce his views largely by comparison and by 
illustrations, by sallies of wit and homely anec- 
dotes. It was always understood that fun was 
ahead when ''Abe Linkern" took the floor. 

Upon one occasion Abraham walked to Boone- 
ville, fifteen miles, to attend a session of the cir- 
cuit court. One Breckenridge, a lawyer with 
merely a local fame, made a speech in a murder 
case which captivated the youthful aspirant ; and 
as he walked home after dark, his vivid fancy 
wrought like scenes of forensic glory for himself. 



CHAPTER III 

LINCOLN AS A LABORER 

As time wore on, and Abraham got from news- 
papers and elsewhere an idea firmly lodged in 
his mind, that there was a world outside of and 
beyond Gentryville, he longed to carry his wits 
and energy to a larger market. Accordingly, he 
applied to Mr. WiUiam Wood, who was quite 
willing to aid him, for a recommendation as a 
hand of some sort on a steamboat. Wood declined 
this favor on the ground that Abe w^as still in 
his minority and owed his services to his father. 
But an opportunity to see the outer world soon 
offered in this wise: About March i, 1828, when 
Abraham was nineteen years of age, he v/as in 
the employment of James Gentry, whose son 
Allen Gentry was about to start on a flatboat trip 
to New Orleans to trade off a load of country 
produce. Needing a hand to aid, the Gentrys 
readily induced young Lincoln to go along at 
eight dollars per month and board. 

The flatboat of early days was simply built of 
sufficient strength to last one downward trip, af- 
ter which it would be converted into fuel. Two 
flat pieces of timber from thirty to fifty feet in 
length, two to three feet in breadth, and a foot 
in thickness were hewed out of a poplar log ; one 
edge was level, the other two were bevelled at 
each end. These pieces were called gunwales — 
pronounced gunnels. Into these giuiwales, at 

49 



50 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

suitable distances, were mortised cross-pieces of 
oak, fourteen feet long, six inches wide, and three 
inches thick, in addition to head blocks at each 
end, six or eight inches square. A stout frame 
being thus made, two-inch oak planks were fas- 
tened longitudinally to the oak cross-pieces by 
means of wooden pins an inch square, systemati- 
cally cut out from a tough species of timber 
termed *'pin oak," and driven by a heavy maul 
through an auger hole bored through both planks. 
The bottom, consisting of two-inch oak plank, 
was then fastened on to these longitudinal planks 
and rabbeted into the gunwales, the same being 
made water-tight by oakum and pitch. Thus far, 
no iron was used in the construction, and no iron 
tools employed beyond a crosscut saw, a mill 
saw, an axe, a broad-axe, an auger, and a draw- 
knife. 

This boat was launched by simply turning it 
over by two windlasses and levers so as to lie 
bottom side down in the river. Uprights con- 
sisting of 4 x 4 scantling were then mortised into 
the upper edge of the gunwales, and one-and- 
one-half-inch poplar plank securely fastened 
longitudinally thereon, and the seams caulked 
with oakum, and pitched. When produce was to 
be her cargo, a false bottom was put in, as it 
was impossible to construct such boats so that 
they would be entirely water-tight. Finally, a 
ridge-pole was placed longitudinally, and a roof 
was added. A cabin was improvised in one cor- 
ner by the use of rough boards, and four huge 
oars were rigged, two on the sides, one at the 
bow, and one at the stern. A ''check post" and 
coil of rope were then provided, and the craft 
was in commission. 



LINCOLN AS A LABORER 5^ 

The mode of navigating such an unwieldy 
craft was thus : Being loaded, the line is cast 
loose, and impelled as far from shore as is prac- 
ticable by means of a setting pole, to which the 
junior navigator sets his shoulder. When that 
auxiliary fails, then resort is had to the side oars, 
known otherwise as ''sweeps." By their aid 
the craft is impelled into the current, which im- 
pels it down stream at the rate of from four 
to six miles per hour. Skill is required to pilot 
the boat around bends in the river; as, left to it- 
self, it would sweep in toward shore, and possibly 
be beached. This is avoided by the pilot setting 
the bow towards the centre of the stream, and 
plying the side sweeps, so as to attain and retain 
that position in the crooked stream. Neverthe- 
less, a severe wind would frequently blow the 
boat towards the bank, and the crew be com- 
pelled to land, and in such case, the junior navi- 
gator must put off in a small boat, as the shore 
came near, with a rope around his body which 
he would quickly secure to some riparian object, 
when the senior navigator would take a turn 
around the check post, and, by checking the mo- 
mentum by degrees, finally bring the boat to a 
stop without disaster. While at shore a watch 
was necessary against the incursions of predatory 
visitors, as well as to prevent the boat from 
grounding by the recession of the river. Some- 
times the two navigators would run night and 
day, in which case but one would be constantly 
on watch. At night, in addition to keeping the 
boat in the current, signals must be given to pass- 
ing steamers, which was done by the waving of 
a lantern or a firebrand. The cooking usually 
fell to the lot of the junior. Thus, in one way 



52 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

and another, a flatboat trip, under the manage- 
ment of but two persons, was a constant suc- 
cession of hardships and novelties. Mr. Lincoln 
has himself described his flatboat experiences to 
me. In fact, as I, too, once made a flatboat 
trip, we compared experiences. On Gentry's 
and Lincoln's trip they commenced to barter 
away their load after they had fairly embarked 
on the Mississippi, receiving cotton, tobacco, and 
sugar in exchange for potatoes, bacon, apples, 
and jeans. This sort of river commerce was very 
common from the year 1820 to the period of the 
war, and thrives to some extent even now. 

Lincoln returned home from this, his first trip, 
in June, 1828, and fell into the same weary round 
of existence which he had pursued before, but 
with an evident longing for pursuits of a more 
ambitious and dignified character than those to 
which his existence had theretofore been con- 
secrated. 

In two years more he would arrive at the age 
of conventional manhood. Thomas Lincoln, 
even with the wages of Abraham and Sarah, had 
not greatly bettered his condition. The farm 
(so-called) had been purchased entirely on 
credit, and was then only partially paid for. The 
father had no title or muniment of title to his 
farm; only to a right thereafter to acquire it, 
provided he paid for it. From a few lean acres 
some corn was gleaned, as the product of the 
least culture possible. Thomas Lincoln had no 
vices, nor yet any economic virtues, and he was a 
poor calculator, and being in the economical 
"slough of despond," saw no means by which 
he might emerge therefrom. 

The community of which he formed part was 



LINCOLN AS A LABORER SS 

somewhat more provident, but yet very primi- 
tive. The most luxuriant growth was rehgion; 
to attend ''meetin'/' the settlers would jour- 
ney eight or ten miles on foot, or horseback, 
or however they could. The females would be 
attired in their husbands' overcoats, while the 
latter would protect themselves from the weather 
by hunting shirts and moccasins. They met in 
schoolhouses, private houses, or in the woods. 
The preachers were apt to be more zealous than 
consistent, more polemical than charitable. Not 
only were their *'meetin's" employed as an agency 
by which they might obtain the priceless boon of 
eternal life, but they served the more worldly and 
less meritorious object of neighborly reunions, 
when social amenities were cultivated, friend- 
ships cemented, mutual acquaintance fostered, 
and the general welfare discussed and adjudi- 
cated. Instead of formal sanctimony brooding 
over the gathering, joyousness and bonhomie 
prevailed. They lived too remote from each 
other to "run in and out" daily, and when they 
did meet, mix, and mingle on the Lord's Day, it 
was used as a medium by which to secure attri- 
tion and hold converse with their kind. The 
wom.en wore "calash," or scoop-shovel bonnets, 
linsey-woolsey frocks gathered just under the 
armpits, coarse underwear, and brogans. The 
"dress" suit of the men was composed of jeans 
of close and economical fit, with the waist high 
up in the back, buckskin trousers, and coonskin 
cap. Their manners were bluff and hearty; all 
door-strings were hung outside, a sincere wel- 
come was accorded to strangers, locks and bolts 
were unknown. While entire families were at 
"meetin' " on Sunday, or at a "hoedown," or 



54 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

*'quiltin'," or *'corn-schuckin'," or ''house- 
raisin' " on a week-day, an ill-disposed person 
might have ransacked the whole neighborhood 
without let or hindrance. That this never oc- 
curred indicates that this neighborhood was a 
veritable Arcadia. 

While there was no especial spirit of caste, 
there was, nevertheless, a spirit of criticism and 
disparagement; and the social gamut had both a 
bass and treble clef, upon which the merits of 
all were hung. The conventional standing of 
Abraham Lincoln was not a product of the fam- 
ily tree. His father's extreme poverty and ina- 
bility to extricate himself therefrom, prevented 
any social standing, but Abe, by his own individ- 
ual merit, achieved a place for himself and sister, 
and likewise for his foster-brother and sisters, in 
the social life of the neighborhood. 

Still another mental idiosyncrasy of that primi- 
tive community was its proneness to all varieties 
of superstition; no explanation can be vouch- 
safed why this habit and peculiarity was more 
rife here than elsewhere under like conditions, 
but so it was. 

They performed various matters according to 
the phases of the moon; planted esculents 
by the dark of this luminary, and products of the 
vine by its light. They dug for water by the 
guidance of the hazel fork in the hands of the 
water-witch, and had a general belief in witch- 
craft. They had faith in the healing virtues of 
the madstone. The}^ believed in dreams, signs, 
and omens, and were terrified at the chirping of 
the ''death watch." They would commence no 
journey or undertaking on Friday. They were 
deceived by charlatans who plied the healing art 



LINCOLN AS A LABORER 55 

by means of the secret processes of the cabbala, 
and saw tl cir future husbands, wives, or desti- 
nies in the kaleidoscopic groupings of the tea- 
grounds in their cups. An accident, which to 
the unimaginative mind was obviously attributa- 
ble to improvidence, they assigned to the genius 
of bad luck. A matrimonial match, propitious 
in its consequences, was made by the angels in 
the Elysium of light; one unfortunate in its de- 
nouement was churned up by a dusky crowd in 
the other place, etc. 

The prevalence of these foolish notions exer- 
cised a great influence on the plastic and suscepti- 
ble mind of our hero, in the formative stage of 
his career. His vigor of mind and independence 
of thought in all other phases and manifestations 
could not triumph over these mental weaknesses. 
When his son Robert was bitten by a dog which 
it was feared was rabid, he journeyed with him, 
at great discomfort, to Terre Haute, to have a 
madstone which was there applied to the wound. 
While in the White House, he was known to steal 
out furtively and attend spiritualistic seances, 
and consult mediums as to his lines of duty, and 
to the prognostications of the future. He be- 
lieved in dreams, as Napoleon did; he had faith 
in destiny. His whole manhood's life was one 
scene of misery because it was largely filled with 
dismal and shadowy forebodings. 

Among these people, he grew to maturity of 
manhood, and while there imbibed and matured 
an ambition which brought forth fruit after many 
days. He lived there from the fall of 1816, when 
he was seven and a half years old, until the spring 
of 1830, when he was of age — a physical, politi- 
cal, and conventional man. Almost naked, he 



56 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

came into that region. The value nd price of 
property, and population increased an hundred- 
fold during his stay there, and although the 
house of "Lincoln" was augmented in siibstantial 
wealth by the generous contributions of Sallie 
Bush Lincoln, yet this family left that region, 
after over thirteen years' sojourn, as poor as it 
came. 

Abraham's sister had married Aaron Grigsby 
at the age of eighteen, and had died, in childbed, 
within a year thereafter. It was a sad blow to 
her brother — he reflected upon the preceding 
burial. He had everything in common with his 
mother and sister, but little with his father, and 
as he heard the clods reverberate dully from the 
grave which contained the early companion of 
his few joys and many sorrows, the pent-up 
grief of his stricken soul found vent in convulsive 
sobs which brought tears to the little sympathetic 
assembly. There were but the least few cords 
that bound Abraham Lincoln to existence : one of 
them snapped at the grave of Nancy Hanks Lin- 
coln; and yet another at the new-made grave in 
the weird forest. What have I to live for? be 
repeated to himself over and over. Even his 
foster-sisters, who had been company and com- 
panions to him, were hardly so longer, for Ma- 
tilda, the eldest, had married his second-cousin, 
Dennis Hanks, and Sarah, the younger, had mar- 
ried another second-cousin, Levi Hall ; and they 
each were rearing children. John D. Johnston, 
his foster-brother, alone remained, and was only 
apparently a companion to Abraham. In their 
common and mutual adolescence, they were 
closely allied in all things, but as the mind of one 
delved by self-introspection into the strata of the 



LINCOLN AS A LABORER 57' 

moral world, the vacant mind of the other re- 
mained stranded on the bleak shores of medioc- 
rity, and their intimacy was but of the most su- 
perficial character. 

Nancy Hanks Lincoln, as has been stated, had 
an uncle who was a carpenter in Elizabethtown, 
and with whom Thomas Lincoln "larned" his 
trade of carpenter. He had a son John, as in- 
flexibly honest and reliable as Abraham Lincoln 
himself. John had come to the Lincolns* set- 
tlement in Indiana, and Hved in and about Gen- 
tryville for about two years, but during the fall 
of 1828 he had drifted into Macon County, Illi- 
nois, and was comfortably settled there. Thomas 
Lincoln, ever ready to change his uniformly indi- 
gent condition, inquired of John Hanks about 
the Illinois country, whether it offered sufficiently 
promising advantages to a poor immigrant such 
as himself. To these inquiries, Uncle John (as 
I always called him) returned very Candid, and, 
on the whole satisfactory replies, with the re- 
sult that, during the winter of 1829-30, it was 
determined in the family councils of the Lincol!as 
to move to Macon County, Illinois, upon the first 
budding of spring. 

The business arrangements were easily and 
quickly despatched. Gentry, who substantially 
had a title to the farm in a mortgage thereon, 
took over the equity. Turnham purchased the 
few hogs, and bought the small remnant of corn 
for ten cents a bushel. When the middle of 
February came, the season was deemed suffi- 
ciently advanced for the impatient family to start. 
There were really three families, to wit : Thomas 
Lincoln, his wife, Abraham, and John D. John- 
ston, his foster-brother ; Levi and Sarah Johnston 



58 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

Hall, and their son; and Dennis and Matilda 
Johnston Hanks, and their four children; thir- 
teen persons in all. The day of departure ap- 
proached. On the day before the start was to be 
made, Abraham, Dennis, and John visited the lit- 
tle hamlet of Gentryville and bade adieu to the 
Gentrys senior and junior, John Baldwin, the 
blacksmith, who was one of Lincoln's staunchest 
and most reliable friends, Jones, Lincoln's mer- 
chant friend, and the various neighbors who were 
casually there ; they then visited and bade good- 
bye to Dan Turnham, the constable, at whose 
house Abraham commenced his studies in law 
by reading the ''Revised Statutes of Indiana," then 
took affectionate leave of ''Uncle" Wood, Ste- 
phen McDaniels, John Duthan, Mrs. Crawford, 
the Grigsbys (the entente cordiale having been 
reestablished between them), John Romine, and 
the rest. And as the awkward and uncouth 
youth, all unconscious of the immortal career 
for which he was destined, lay down for the last 
time to sleep in the humble cabin which had shel- 
tered him for thirteen years, we can well imagine 
that his sensibilities were profoundly stirred, and 
that his feelings found relief in tears. 

The animating principle of Thomas Lincoln's 
migration is not difficult to divine : The part of 
Kentucky where manhood found him was sterile 
at best. The free laborer had little chance for 
social and material advancement; a niggerless 
white was regarded as a social pariah. Thomas 
Lincoln inherited rigid notions of humanity from 
a Quaker ancestry which recognized slavery as 
a crime ; so he did what other conscientious men 
were doing in similar circumstances : he left a 
State where caste was securely enthroned for a 



LINCOLN AS A LABORER 59 

State where social, as well as political, equality- 
prevailed. Migration is an American institution. 
Instances are not rare of men who have actually 
lived in a dozen different States ; and California, 
Oregon, and Washington are largely peopled by 
men who commenced their tours of migration in 
the Atlantic States, and by slow approaches ulti- 
mately reached the ultimate limits of Western 
civilization. Andrew Jackson, William Henry 
Harrison, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, An- 
drew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, and Benjamin 
Harrison were emigrants. 

Thomas Lincoln likewise had abundant cause 
to leave Indiana. Milk-sickness is given as the 
cause by Dennis Hanks. Nancy Hanks Lin- 
coln, and her uncle and aunt, had all died of it 
within two months of each other, and as Dennis 
naively says : ''AH of my relatives died of that 
disease on Little Pigeon Creek, Spencer County. 
... I was determined to leave and hunt a 
country where milk-sick was not ; this is the rea- 
son for leaving Indiana." 

Activity, bustle, and excitement reigned in and 
about the Lincoln cabin, near Gentry ville, on 
the morning of February 15, 1830. An early 
breakfast had been hastily despatched by the 
light of some blazing fagots, by thirteen people, 
and each of them was engaged in guiding events 
toward an orderly and symmetrical exodus from 
the scene of so many melancholy experiences. 

The two "gals" (as they were called) were 
tying up rough bedclothes, packing dishes, skil- 
lets, pots and pans, and "toting" bundles to an 
extremely shabby and primitive vehicle, in which 
the patriarch of the household was awkwardly 
storing them away. John D. Johnston, Dennis 



6o LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

Hanks, and Abraham Lincoln were corralling a 
few yearling cattle, and imposing the yoke upon 
eight of the least unpromising. Levi Hall was 
casting a wary eye at the storing of the cargo, 
tightening a wedge here, tying a bark knot there, 
or driving a peg yonder, and venturing sundry 
bits of advice, having in view the proper disposi- 
tion of the crude freight so as not to endanger the 
safety of the rude craft. The mother of the 
tribe was viewing the animated scene with an 
anxious eye and directing matters with responsi- 
ble consideration, issuing directions and uttering 
sundry warnings concerning the task then being 
wrought out. While the children, radiant with 
happiness at the novelty and commotion, were 
dancing about in everybody's way. 

Finally the four yoke of frisky, half-broken 
steers, after much coercion on the part of four 
men, were attached to the wagon; the last rude 
article was loaded on, stuck in, or tied under the 
wagon; the good mother, with much protesting, 
was forced to mount on the load, and the little 
ones were stored away somewhere in the inter- 
stices. The few parting words were said to the 
few friends who stood tearfully and dejectedly 
around, and the leader propounded the final in- 
terrogation of, "All ready?" which being an- 
swered by half a dozen or more in the affirmative, 
the leader flourished his ox-whip vigorously, at 
the game time ejaculating, *'Come, Buck! You, 
Bright! Go 'lang, Jim!''' The team straight- 
ened out, the chains were tightly drawn, a creak- 
ing sound issued from four rebellious axles, a 
spasmodic activity v/as imparted to the load, the 
old lady clutched uneasily at some means to 
steady herself, the mercurial and excited young- 



LINCOLN AS A LABORER 6l 

sters were warned to hang on, the load pitched 
forward, steadied, careened to one side, righted 
np, and jolted along to the dolorous creakinga 
of a home-made vehicle. And thus the Tribe 
of Lincoln set out on its journey for the Prom- 
ised Land, and thus also Abraham Lincoln, hav- 
ing been three days a conventional man, com- 
menced to bear the burden of responsible life as 
an ox driver. 

Can the imagination of these days of mechani- 
cal marvels reconstruct in fancy the rude vehi- 
cle which carried the fortunes of Abraham Lin- 
coln from Gentryville, Ind., to Decatur, 111.? 
Will the occupant of the modern railway coach 
or of an automobile credit the assertion that not 
a particle of iron or other metal entered into its 
composition except the narrow iron bands which 
bound the periphery of the wheels ; that those 
wheels were solid blocks of v/ood made approxi- 
mately circular by the broad-axe and drawknife, 
and that in lieu of bolts, straps, or other fasten- 
ings, hickory withes were used ? So rude a vehi- 
cle does not exist to-day in any part of the world, 
not even in Tasmania or Zululand. The cargo 
consisted of a bureau, a chest of drawers, a table, 
two chairs bottomed with rawhide, some bundles 
of bedding, some bundles of clothing, a carpen- 
ter's chest of tools, and some very rude cooking 
utensils. The most unpropitious season of the 
year seems to have been selected for such a jour- 
ney, inasmuch as the road froze at night and 
thawed by day, causing the heavy wagon to be 
mired daily. 

So, too, the hardships of the journey were 
greatly increased by the not infrequent crossing 
of creeks upon whose surface a thin film of ice 



62 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

would generally be formed, and which all parties 
would be compelled to ford. At length the emi- 
grants crossed the Illinois line, and struck a north 
and south trail through the prairie, lying near 
to, if not, indeed, some of the way upon, the loca- 
tion of the main line of the Illinois Central Rail- 
way. This ultimately brought them to the then 
inconsiderable village of Decatur, through whose 
vacant streets they slowly defiled, an object of 
interest to the few stragglers whom they encoun- 
tered, as well as to the inhabitants who, from the 
windows of comfortable rooms, gazed at the un- 
couth procession, little aware that the tall young 
ox driver who led it was destined to shed upon 
their community its most resplendent lustre — that 
within that little village he was to be enthusiasti- 
cally nominated by delegates from the State 
of Illinois as the candidate for the most exalted 
office on earth, and so cause the name of their 
then inconsequential village to be handed down 
in imperishable fame. 

Arrived in front of the courthouse, the wagon 
halted, and the various members of the little rag- 
ged and muddy coterie drew together in a cir- 
cle, while the conventional head of the party went 
timidly into the courthouse and ventured to in- 
quire of a boy who was recording deeds if he 
could inform him which road "mout" lead to 
John Hanks 's place on the Sangamo. In point 
of fact, Hanks lived but four miles northwest of 
Decatur, and thither the humble procession 
wended its way, arriving there at nightfall, to 
receive the heartiest of welcomes from their kins- 
man. Faithful old John Hanks! He had not, 
could not have, an enemy on earth ; he was home- 
spun, matter-of-fact, and dull to a superlative 



LINCOLN AS A LABORER (>^ 

degree, but he was the very soul of generosity, 
truth, and probity. He made no pretensions to 
anything beyond mauHng rails, plowing, husk- 
ing corUj and other manual labors. As shall 
afterward be related, more than any other friend 
of Lincoln he aided in his election to the Presi- 
dency by fixing the epithet of ''rail-splitter" upon 
him, a homely title that struck the popular fancy, 
and attracted ten voters to Lincoln for every one 
it repelled. And when Lincoln came into his 
glory, John Hanks displayed a sincerity of nature 
that only his ignorance saved from being pre- 
sumption, by applying to the President for an 
office. 

Procuring a new suit of blue jeans, he went 
to Washington and called on his youthful com- 
panion, his putative partner in the rail-splitting 
business (the prosaic fact is. Uncle John split 
all the rails, while Abe cut the logs into rail 
lengths). ''I'll tell ye, Abe, what I come for," 
he bluntly said. "I want to be a Injun agent, 
and Dick Ogleby said as how you could give it 
to me sure." Lincoln was nonplussed. Uncle 
John was rigidly honest, but had no ability be- 
yond the doing of farm drudgery. How would 
it look for "honest old Abe" to bestow an office 
which required business training on a rustic sim- 
pleton, simply because he was a friend and kins- 
man? Besides, John Hanks could neither read 
nor write, but then Uncle John had proposed his 
son, who could do both, for his clerk. "How will 
it do?" asked the President of me, ruminatingly. 
"Just the thing," I answered. "An honest man 
as an Indian agent will be a good send-oflf for 
you." "But the trouble is his ignorance." 
"Never mind; his honesty is better than knowl- 



64 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

edge," I said. Other advisers concurred in my 
opinion. However, at the cost of a bitter strug- 
gle, the President refused Uncle John's request, 
as he also did tiiat of Dennis Hanks, who came 
on to Washington later and asked that the Presi- 
dent's foster-sister, his wife, might be appointed 
postmistress of Charleston, 111. Would Abraham 
Lincoln have believed in the possibility of such a 
thing on the night of March i, 1830, thirty-one 
years before, when he and Dennis and Matilda 
gathered about the humble board of old John in 
the Macon wilderness, and enjoyed the first 
square meal under a roof for two weeks? 

Not until the wee sma' hours did Tom and 
Abe and John and Dennis and Levi and their 
good host lie down to rest; for the newcomers 
were homeless, and crops must be speedily 
planted; and a programme of inspection and se- 
lection had to be made out for the succeeding 
day. 

Six miles further down the stream, John 
Hanks had selected a place for the settlement of 
his kinfolks, and had cut logs sufficient for a 
cabin. Thither all the men went the next morn- 
ing; a site was selected for a field and the cabin, 
and the united energies of all were bent toward 
planting homes in the forest for the three fami- 
lies. Fifteen acres of river bottom were cleared 
for the use of Thomas Lincoln's family proper; 
it then consisting theoretically of his wife, Abra- 
ham, and John D. Johnston. 

Abraham was now a legal man, having no 
claim for parental aid, and charged with all the 
responsibilities of budding and ambitious man- 
hood. Lie was in a new State surrounded by the 
most primitive society of the frontier — a mere ad- 



LINCOLN AS A LABORER 65 

venturer, with nothing on earth but his right 
arm and uneducated brain as a capital with which 
to commence the journey of Hfe. He was legally, 
but not morally, independent. His father had no 
financial ability, and, to put it plainly, was very 
liable to need the aid of his only son in the fu- 
ture as in the past. Faithful to all moral obHga- 
tions then as thereafter, Abraham felt resting 
upon his shoulders, contingently, the burden 
of his father's and step-mother's support ; and, 
all things considered, it would not be easy 
to find a more unenviable condition of American 
manhood than that which environed Abraham 
Lincoln when he cast of¥ from the shores of de- 
pendent youth, and embarked on the uncertain 
voyage of independent and responsible life. 

His home with his father thenceforth was but 
nominal. He really lived with families for whom 
he worked as a hired laborer. All that is known 
of his career during the first year in Illinois is 
that he worked at odd jobs when he could, in 
the immediate neighborhood. He probably did 
not visit Decatur once during all that time. His 
residence in Macon County was apparently a 
simple bridging over from the irresponsible and 
reckless career of a fanciful youth of uncertain 
instincts, to the incipient career of responsible 
life. His propensity to air his eloquence was 
not, however, in abeyance even then; for we 
learn that a candidate for the Legislature, by the 
convenient and conventional name of "Posey" 
(that name standing as the John Doe of Lin- 
colnian biography), made a speech in the Hanks 
neighborhood on the then current political issue 
of the navigation of the Sangamo River. 
"Posey" seems to have been opposed to its im- 



66 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

provement for navigation, and Lincoln In favor 
of it. Uncle John evidently knew his kinsman's 
views on the subject, for he at once took Issue 
with *Tosey," and avowed that ''Abe" could beat 
it. So John brought out a box, which Abe 
mounted, and made his oratorical bow to the sov- 
ereigns of his adopted State In the advocacy of 
a subject which never had anything but a fictiti- 
tious political standing, and which was soon over- 
shadowed by the advent of the railway question, 
first as a political factor, and ultimately as a po- 
tential fact. It appears from Uncle John's state- 
ment that Abe beat "Posey" ''to death" in the 
discussion, and that his discomfited antagonist, 
asking him where he had learned so much, en- 
couraged him to assume the role of politician. 

It will be recollected that Henry Clay, in ad- 
dressing a class of students once, informed them 
that he had largely improved himself in the art 
of oratory by addressing imaginary audiences, 
represented by hencoops, stumps, trees, etc. The 
future hero of the "joint debate" underwent a 
similar self-imposed discipline, and alike in 
Spencer County, Indiana, and Macon County, 
Illinois, he was wont to convert the "deep, tan- 
gled wlldwood" Into an imaginary audience, and 
thus discipline his genius In the ways and graces 
of the effective orator. 

It will be recollected that an especial reason why 
Thomas Lincoln removed from Indiana to Illinois 
was, as Dennis Hanks puts it, to get "where milk- 
sick was not." The new settlers did, indeed, escape 
the "milk sickness," but they encountered a dis- 
ease which was nearly as bad. The fall of 1830 
was an unusually severe season for chills and 
fever, and Thomas and his family were so sorely 



LINCOLN AS A LABORER 67 

afflicted with it as to become thoroughly discour- 
aged. Their Httle sorry cabin presented a mel- 
ancholy sight : the father and mother both shak- 
ing at once, and the married daughter, who came 
to minister to their sufferings, not much better 
off. So terribly did they suffer that the father 
vowed a vow that as soon as he got able to travel 
he would "git out tharf 

The winter season came on and was one of 
''ethereal mildness" up to Christmas, when a ter- 
rible and persistent snowstorm set in, and lasted 
without intermission for forty-eight hours, leav- 
ing between three and four feet on the ground 
on the level, a depth never attained before nor 
since, and remaining so for over two months. 
Its effect upon the rural districts was disas- 
trous : the wheat crops were totally ruined ; cat- 
tle, hogs, and even horses perished; all sorts of 
provisions gave out. There was no means of 
getting help from abroad. In some places teams 
would bear up on the crust of the snow ; in oth- 
ers, there was no road communication at all, and 
athletic men would be compelled to journey on 
foot to neighbors for food. Many perished on 
the prairie from cold; some even perished in 
their houses from hunger. Selfishness was ex- 
orcised by the common calamity ; charity was uni- 
versal ; the whole interior districts of the State 
were made akin by that one touch of nature, the 
"big snow." 

That awful event was made a chronological 
era ever afterwards. Many a fireside gathering 
has, in the past generation of men, been thrilled 
by a recounting of the incidents of that drear and 
awful ''winter of the deep snow." 

This "Hanks" neighborhood was unusually 



68 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

tminteresting ; much more so than that which 
the emigrants had left behind in Indiana, and 
the twin calamities of "chills and fever" and the 
"deep snow," coming in succession, Thomas Lin- 
coln emigrated in the succeeding spring to 
"Goose Nest" Prairie, in the southern part of 
Coles County, about one hundred miles south- 
east of Decatur. Here he lived until his death 
in 1851. 

Flowing in a sinuous course, generally south- 
westwardly, through Champaign, Piatt, Macon, 
and between Christian and Sangamon counties, 
for a hundred miles, then turning abruptly to 
the northv^^est for about fifty miles, then pursu- 
ing a course due west until it finally reaches, and 
mingles its turbid current with that of the Illi- 
nois, is a river now known improperly as the 
"Sangamon." Its correct name, given by the 
Indians, is "Sangamo" — pronounced "Sanga- 
niazv" — and it was so called in Lincoln's early 
manhood. The Hanks neighborhood is on the 
right bank of this river, at a point near to where 
its course is changed from a southwesterly to a 
northwesterly one. It was in the river bot- 
toms of this stream, in this neighborhood, 
that Lincoln passed the first year of his man- 
iiood. 

In February, 183 1, one Denton Offutt, a bibu- 
lous, "devil-may-care" sort of person, a combi- 
nation of speculator and mountebank, drifted 
into this neighborhood, and casually met John 
Hanks, who had somehow achieved a local fame 
as a flatboatman. Offutt proposed to Hanks to 
transport a flatboat load of country produce to 
New Orleans. Hanks was not unwilling to go, 
but deferred a definite answer till he could con- 



LINCOLN AS A LABORER 69 

suit Lincoln and John D. Johnston, and ascer- 
tain if they could be induced to accompany 
him. 

Now I have heretofore stated that one of Lin- 
coln's mental traits of character was a propensity 
for a diversion of employment, a hopping about 
from one thing to another, rather than consecu- 
tive, steady, and monotonous labor. He was, 
moreover, not disinclined to adventure ; to seeing 
the world ; to achieving knowledge in the schoal 
of experience and variety; and thus it was that 
he entered promptly into a business engagement 
with Ofifutt by the terms of which Offutt was 
to provide a boat and cargo at the confluence 
of Sugar Creek and the south fork with the main 
Sangamo, a few miles east of the then obscure 
and ill-built village of Springfield. This boat 
Lincoln, John Hanks, and John D. Johnston were 
to navigate to New Orleans. The three argo- 
nauts met promptly at the appointed rendezvous, 
Lincoln and Hanks sailing down in a frail canoe, 
and their companion preferring the safer method 
of pedal locomotion. But they found neither 
boat nor cargo awaiting them. In point of fact, 
all that the energetic but erratic contractor had 
done was to engage to purchase sundry supplies 
of the few cross-road merchants. Thus the en- 
terprise was, for the time being, suspended. 
However, the trio of prospective navigators, 
nothing daunted, but without a solitary cent, 
change of clothing, or anything corporeal ex- 
cept their bodies and the rude clothing which 
they wore, started on foot for Springfield, v/here 
they supposed some tidings of their employer 
might be obtained. 

As I am not unfamiliar with the styles and 



70 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

modes of life of our frontier people in primitive 
days and conditions, I can see in my mind's eye 
this loutish crowd as they entered into the pre- 
cincts of this uninviting village, then a sparsely 
settled community of five hundred people, poorly 
built, and the streets almost totally impassable 
with deep, "sticky" mud. 

It is not difficult for me to reproduce in fancy 
the supercilious stare which greeted these rag- 
ged searchers after light and knowledge, as they 
prosecuted their inquiries at the few stores for 
the whereabouts of "Denton OfTutt." That their 
mission was supposed by those who took any 
interest in the matter to be a barren one was un- 
doubted, for Offutt was generally known to be an 
irresponsible projector. Had not our adventu- 
rers followed the matter up, it is probable Denton 
would have done nothing further about it, but 
would have turned his attention to some other 
wild scheme. For this venture was not in the 
line of legitimate commerce or adventure ; the 
Sangamo was not rated as a navigable stream ; 
there was at least one mill-dam, and the river's 
availability for commerce and as a highway was 
then advocated, so far as was known, by only 
two individuals in the whole world, viz. : Abra- 
ham Lincoln in theory, and Denton Oflfutt in 
practice. 

It was at the Buckhorn Tavern, the leading 
place of its kind in town, that Oflfutt was finally 
found. Although it was in the middle of the 
day, he was found lying in a corner fast asleep, 
and most decidedly drunk. 

The presence of his boat's crew and the neces- 
sities of the occasion soon roused and stimulated 
the energies of the enterprising but erratic pro- 



LINCOLN AS A LABORER 7^ 

jector, and he gave carte blanche to his three em- 
ployees to invade the government land and get 
out gunwales, and to repair to a rude mill man- 
aged by one Kirkpatrick (of whom more anon), 
in order to obtain the necessary lumber at Offutt's 
expense to construct the boat. The three ac- 
cordingly improvised a camp and adopted an 
organization to consummate the project, in which 
to Lincoln was assigned the role of ''chief cook 
and bottle-washer/' In thirty days hence the flat- 
boat was completed, and rode proudly on the 
bosom of the river, moored to the mud banks of 
the Sangamo — the pioneer of all water craft iij 
that region. 

I shall hereafter have occasion to note that 
Abraham Lincoln was always and ever ready to 
meet and master any of the real exigencies which 
lay in his pathway, and this incident furnished 
the first occasion for the exercise of his faculties 
in that line. He was the controlling spirit of the 
entire affair. It is even more than probable that 
Lincoln's advocacy of the practicability of navi- 
gating the Sangamo first induced Offutt to risk 
the venture, and it is also reasonably clear that his 
enthusiasm and spirit brought out of chaos and 
made practicable the carrying out of the enter- 
prise. While engaged in building the boat a peri- 
patetic prestidigitator came along, and gave an 
entertainment in a garret. This our boat-build- 
ers attended, and it was Lincoln's hat that the 
magician used in the manner of his craft to cook 
eggs in. This was the first public entertainment 
which we have any record that Lincoln attended. 
Throughout his subsequent career he was very 
fond of such amusements. That he was shot 
while gazing on a mimic scene has troubled many 



72 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

good folk who disapprove of theatres, and they 
have sought various excuses for his presence at 
the fatal play, such as his desire to honor General 
Grant, who was expected there, etc. The fact is, 
Lincoln had from the first a keen interest in any 
public performance, and in time developed a crit- 
ical appreciation of the highest form of entertain- 
ment, the drama. 

Oflfutt's adhesion to the flowing bowl retarded 
the enterprise, but during his spasms of sobriety, 
the load was engaged, the boat was loaded, the 
parting signal was given, and this argosy under 
command of Lincoln was, in the middle of April, 
set on the raging tide. At a distance of thirty- 
seven miles as the river runs, on the 19th day of 
April, a mill-dam was encountered, on which the 
rude craft, after passing one-third of its length, 
stuck fast. 

In the exigency thus presented, Lincoln was 
the directing and master mind. The forward end 
of the boat was tilted up, and the rear end sub- 
merged ; a smaller boat was procured, and part of 
the load transferred. Lincoln then bored a hole 
in that part of the bottom of the boat which pro- 
jected over the dam, and then rolled some heavy 
pork barrels forward, which gave a pitch to the 
boat and let the water run out, after which the 
hole was stopped up, and, by a skilful use of 
poles, the vessel was got over, reloaded, and sent 
forward on its course. 

When the craft reached Beardstown, its odd 
appearance and wild-looking crew excited the 
derision of the inhabitants, who committed the 
undignified and inexcusable act of openly ridi- 
culing them as they passed. The venture 
reached New Orleans at last, probably as rude 



LINCOLN AS A LABORER 73 

a craft with as awkward a crew as ever floated 
out of the wild forest. 

While at New Orleans, Lincoln saw the insti- 
tution of slavery in one of its most revolting and 
reprehensible aspects. Nothing was more com- 
mon in those days than the traffic in slaves, and 
New Orleans was the greatest slave-market in 
the Union. One could not walk extensively in 
the streets without being an involuntary witness 
to the horror and infamy of the institution. Lin- 
coln saw an octoroon girl offered for sale on 
the auction-block. As the auctioneer dilated on 
her physical perfections to the lecherous crowd 
of tobacco-chewers and whiskey-blossomed sots 
congregated in the market, and these passed 
ribald jests on the subject, the young Northerner 
was sickened by the scene, and hastily withdrew 
from it, prophetically remarking to Hanks : "If 
I ever get a chance at that thing, I'll hit it hard." 

In June, the venture having been concluded, 
the party returned up the river on the deck of a 
steamer as far as St. Louis, where the three com- 
panions left Dennis, and started on foot for their 
several homes, so far as they had any. The com- 
panions followed the National Road as far as 
Edwardsville, where Hanks left them, taking a 
more direct road to his home in Macon County, 
and Lincoln and Johnston proceeded via the Na- 
tional Road, then extensively travelled, a few 
miles beyond Ewington, where they made a de- 
tour north. Travel-stained and footsore, they 
finally presented themselves at the humble cabin 
door of Thomas and Sallie Bush Lincoln. 

After seeing the world, the prospect of settling 
down in the Macon County cabin was not very 
inviting at best. The region was new, and the 



74 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

people all poor. Thomas Lincoln's hut was as 
rude and uncomfortable as was possible, and 
there was no incentive to exertion, nothing to 
stimulate the ambition. Yet Thomas was cheery 
and stout of heart. His squalor, so apparent to 
every one else, was unobserved by him. In the 
dun sorroundings of his rude abode, his spirits 
were jocund, and he was wholly unconscious that 
life held any greater happiness than that which 
animated his existence. 

A few years after this time, William G. Greene 
was going to Kentucky on a visit, and as his way 
would lie near to where Thomas Lincoln lived, 
Abraham requested him to visit his father and 
deliver him a letter. Greene did so, and as he 
approached the cabin just before nightfall, his 
heart sank within him, for he beheld the most 
wretched hovel he had encountered in his jour- 
ney. It was without a stable, outhouse of any 
kind, and not a shrub or tree was in sight. The 
proprietor appeared and, as soon as he learned 
the situation, exclaimed cheerily : "Get right 
down. Bill. You're welcome, heartily welcome. 
I'm right glad to see you. Til make you and 
your beast so comfortable that you'll stay with 
me a week. Here's just the place to hitch your 
beast [indicating a log of the cabin with a pro- 
jecting end] ; I use it to dress deer-hides on; and 
I've got an iron kettle here; jest the thing for 
a feed-trough, and lots of shelled corn ; so all 
you've got to do is to make yourself at hum as 
long as you like." 

Greene said that Thomas was one of the 
shrewdest ignorant men he ever saw — that he 
took in, at a glance, the feelings of dismay which 
possessed the stranger as he rode up to the 



LINCOLN AS A LABORER 75 

wretched abode, and that his task was to dispel 
that feehng; and he did it by making the guest 
feel that the host, at least, thought everything 
about to be of prime excellence. Seated before 
the rude hearth, Thomas Lincoln said, ''I suppose 
that Abe is still fooling hisself with eddication. 
I tried to stop it, but he has got that fool idea 
in his head, and it can't be got out. Now I hain't 
got no eddication, but I get along far better than 
ef I had. Take bookkeepin' — why, I'm the best 
bookkeeper in the world ! Look up at that rafter 
thar. Thar's three straight lines made with a 
firebrand : ef I sell a peck of meal I draw a black 
line across, and when they pay, I take the dish- 
cloth and jest rub it out; and that thar's a heap 
better'n yer eddication," etc. (In point of fact, 
a part of his business was to superintend a small 
neighborhood mill.) 

When Mr. Greene left his garrulous host the 
next morning, he said he felt as if he had gone 
out from the presence of an intellectually great, 
but entirely unpolished and uncultivated, man. 
Thomas Lincoln's rude methods of reasoning re- 
minded him of the son, then likewise rude and 
unpolished. 

After remaining at his father's home for four 
or five weeks, Abraham left it, never again to 
enter it as an inmate. He had but a very light 
mortgage on the future, and that not based upon 
a very substantial title. Offutt, with all his reck- 
lessness and frivolity, had a considerable fund of 
sagacity and discernment, and he saw in Lincoln 
the making of a great man, and he was desirous 
to ally himself as closely to him as he could ; 
hence, before parting at St. Louis, he entered 
into an arrangement with the young man by the 



76 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

terms of which Offutt was to tarry long enough 
there to gather up a stock of goods, and open a 
store at the place where the boat had stuck on 
the dam, and Lincoln was to act as clerk. The 
first of August succeeding was designated as the 
period for the commencement of this business 
arrangement. With this slender hold upon for- 
tune, Lincoln packed his entire worldly effects in 
a cotton handkerchief, and, slinging the bundle 
across his shoulder, and bidding a dutiful good- 
bye to his father and a pathetic farewell to Sallie 
Bush Johnston, he set his face westward in quest 
of a livelihood, with as cheerless a prospect as 
ever attended a young man going out into the 
world. 

During the year 1824, James Rutledge, Ed- 
ward Rutledge, brothers, and John Miller Cam- 
eron, their brother-in-law, came from Hender- 
son County, Kentucky, and settled in that portion 
of Sangamon County, Illinois, now known as 
Concord Township in Menard County. Cameron 
was a Cumberland Presbyterian preacher; the 
Rutledges belonged to the celebrated family of 
that name whose members were the political 
leaders of South Carolina in the auroral days of 
the republic. 

Two years thereafter, James Rutledge and his 
brother-in-law, Cameron, built a rude dam across 
the Sangamon at a point ten miles distant from 
Concord, and established a very primitive saw- 
and grist-mill, known interchangeably as "Cam- 
eron's" or "Rutledge's" mill. It was upon this 
dam that the flatboat of Offutt's venture got fast. 

Upon the brow of a rocky ridge overlooking 
the dam, Mr. Rutledge and Mr. Cameron each 
built a log dwelling-house, and installed their 



LINCOLN AS A LABORER 77 

families therein. Their neighbors were Bowlin 
Greene, who Hved a half or three-quarters of 
a mile north; Bennett Able, whose house was a 
mile further on ; ''Billy" Greene, who lived three 
miles southwest ; and a considerable settlement 
a few miles southwestward in "Clary's Grove." 

Business at the mill prospered, and the eco- 
nomical exigencies demanded more commercial 
facilities than the original enterprise furnished. 
So Rutledge and Cameron added to their enter- 
prise by purchasing the ridge adjacent to the mill 
and, on October 13, 1829, laying out a town there. 
This they called New Salem, a name indicative 
of their religious turn of mind. Cameron had 
already erected a log hotel of four rooms, and, 
immediately thereafter, two enterprising young 
men from the East, Samuel Hill and John Mc- 
Namee, alias John McNeil, opened a small store 
there; a postoffice was established, and once a 
week the stage-coach, or "mud wagon," as it was 
termed, in its journey from Havana to Spring- 
field, turned aside from the main road, ascended 
the ridge, and gladdened the few dwellers there 
with the weaving of a commercial and literary 
bond between them and the outer world. 

The hamlet took on a slow, plodding, irregu- 
lar growth ; people came for fifty miles to acquire 
anything exotic to their farms, and, in natural 
course of trade, this supply soon came. 



CHAPTER IV 

LINCOLN AS A STOREKEEPER 

When Denton Offutt's boat stuck on the dam, 
New Salem was in the second year of its ex- 
istence, and had then quite a population. So not- 
able and unusual an occurrence as a flatboat, and 
especially one fast on their mill-dam, aroused the 
curiosity of the citizens, and brought the entire 
hamlet to the river banks, where Lincoln, in the 
role of commander, was the most conspicuous 
object. So he was not forgotten, when, in Au- 
gust thereafter, he walked into the town with a 
bundle in a handkerchief slung across his shoul- 
der, and joined the little knot of idlers sitting on 
their haunches on the shady side of Hill's store. 
He opened out his Pandora's box of jokes, af- 
filiated with the crowd at once, and, ''as the set- 
ting sun cast his lengthened shadow athwart the 
little village, it showed no sign of his parting 
from them." 

Lincoln gave no intimation as to what brought 
him there, but soon endeared himself to all by 
exhibiting great muscular strength, bonhomie, 
and his propensity to entertain by anecdote. 

A local election coming on, and "scribes" be- 
ing scarce, the village schoolmaster, Mentor 
Graham, asked him if he could write. He was 
cautious then as thereafter. "1 can make a few 
rabbit-tracks," was the answer, and he acted as 

78 



LINCOLN AS A STOREKEEPER 79 

clerk of election, in company with a young Mr. 
Nance. It should be noted that distrust did not 
prevail in those new regions in that early day. 
Decent-appearing strangers were taken into the 
hearts and homes of the people without criticism 
or inspection ; if work was pressing, they were 
invited to buckle to ; if they proved to be drones, 
they were stung from the hive. If work was 
slack, they were invited to join a fishing or a 
hunting party ; to social life they must contribute 
their share. In that respect, Lincoln was a valu- 
able acquisition ; he knew no one when he came 
there except such persons as he had seen from 
the flatboat, yet in two days he was no longer a 
stranger. 

In a day or so after the election, a Dr. Nel- 
son, who had lived in the neighborhood, desired 
to migrate to Texas, and proposed to float with 
his family and effects, from below the dam at 
New Salem, to Beardstown ; thence to the Miss- 
issippi, and, finally, down that majestic stream to 
the mouth of Red River by means of a small flat- 
boat. Being in need of a pilot to convoy the 
outfit to Beardstown, he employed Lincoln to 
fill that responsible role. At Beardstown Lin- 
coln encountered his employer, Ofifutt, who had 
just arrived with a part of his goods, the rest 
being due by the next steamer. Lincoln was 
left to await their arrival and to see to their 
proper storage while Offutt should repair to 
New Salem in order to rent or build a store, and 
engage teamsters to haul over the goods. Ofifutt 
employed one Potter and another man to trans- 
port the goods, and advised them that on the way 
they might meet Lincoln, from whom they should 
procure the necessary order for them. "How 



So LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

will we know him?" queried Potter. "You can't 
mistake him," replied Offutt; ''he's as long as a 
beanpole, and as awkward as he is long." 

They met Lincoln on the highway, and he 
wrote an order for the goods on a blank leaf of 
a small memorandum book he had with him. 
Potter looked at it and observed, ''You've spelled 
money, m-o-n-y." Lincoln glanced at it, and re- 
plied, "Well, they can't make anything else out 
of it." The goods came in due season, and Lin- 
coln took charge of unboxing and putting them 
in position, after which he commenced his new 
career as the most awkward and ungainly store- 
clerk, probably, in the State of Illinois. Offutt, 
however, was perfectly satisfied with his clerk, 
and besides was enthusiastic in his praise of him 
as a man. Having had occasion, during his flat- 
boat trip, to witness his marvellous strength and 
to see his prowess satisfactorily tested, he ad- 
mired Lincoln extravagantly, and there were in 
New Salem those who shared Offutt's admira- 
tion, though in a minor degree. 

About three miles distant from New Salem 
was a large grove, termed Clary's Grove, which 
was inhabited by a wild lot of pioneers from Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee. Their early education and 
proclivities induced the habits of drinking, fight- 
ing, wrestling, horse-racing, shooting at a mark, 
etc., and their residence on the frontier with no 
attrition with any society or civilization except 
themselves, tended to foster and intensify the wild 
and uncivilized habits and tendencies of their 
youth. The Clary's Grove boys, as they were 
termed, when animated with bad whiskey, and 
decorated with shooting-irons of the rude pat- 
terns incident to the time, were so thoroughly 



LINCOLN AS A STOREKEEPER 8i 

reckless and on mischief bent, as to be a source 
of the utmost terror to all well-disposed people 
who lived in the track of their bacchanalian 
forays. Prior to the advent of Cameron's mill, 
they had had no stated rendezvous, but when 
that was founded, it provided a sort of common 
rallying-point, which was made more definite and 
became more pronounced when Hill and Mc- 
Neil started a store on the hill. In that era of 
the settlement of our frontier, all merchants kept 
cheap and bad whiskey as one of the chief and 
indispensable staples. This necessary article of 
merchandise was purchased in its fiery, untamed 
state and condition in Cincinnati and St. Louis 
at the stated and constant price of eighteen and 
three-quarters cents per gallon. A thrifty mer- 
chant could easily, after he got started, by the 
aid of a pump, perform the benefaction of caus- 
ing three barrels to flow in the place of two. 

One Jack Armstrong was the leader of these 
rowdy pioneers. Their mode of life was to waste 
the first five secular days of the week in farm 
or forest labor, then on Saturday to put on their 
best attire, mount their nags together, and con- 
sume the day and night in various modes an& 
manifestations of frontier rowdyism. When any 
issue was joined with any other segment of man- 
kind, the trial was by wager of battle, in which 
Jack was their champion. 

The closest approach to organized opposition 
to the pretensions of the Clary Grove boys was a 
loose band known as the *'River Timber boys," 
who inhabited the timber belts which skirted the 
river bottoms. The several issues of supremacy, 
as wrestling, fighting, scrub-racing, etc., had 
been settled between these two sets of ''back- 



S2 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

settlement" rowdies before the advent of Lin- 
coln, and "the cankers of a calm world and a long 
peace" held place in the settlement. It was 
then that Bill Clary, one of the ''Clary Grove" 
boys, sounded a blast on his bugle-horn by pro- 
posing a little bet, at the close of a heated dis- 
pute with Offutt, that Jack Armstrong could 
throw Lincoln, ''the best two out of three." This 
very greatly annoyed Lincoln ; preeminently a 
man of peace, he abhorred personal conflict, or 
anything that savored of ill-feeling. He had 
gained the good-will of everybody in that little 
community, and deprecated aught that would dis- 
turb the entente cordiale. Besides, it could lead 
to no good results. What matters it if Jack or 
Abe was the stronger? Lincoln could see no 
utility in the contest proposed, and his whole soul 
rebelled against it. Of course Offutt's intentions 
were good ; he supposed that Abe would come off 
conqueror, and that it would bring zest, if not sa- 
tiety, to a great ambition. 

However, the edict had gone forth, and Lin- 
coln must pose a contestant, or be branded as a 
coward in a community where such an accusa- 
tion was the foulest and most damnatory con- 
ceivable — social death, in fact. 

The combatants and their respective allies ad- 
journed to the scene of the coming fray, bye-bets 
of all conceivable kinds were made ; dirk knives, 
horse pistols, "slick quarters," etc., were staked 
galore on the contest. No such excitement ever 
reigned within the peaceful precincts of New 
Salem before or since. Many of Lincoln's bi- 
ographers have enlarged upon the prolific theme 
of this contest, but for some reason they have 
generally allowed the wings of their imagination 



LINCOLN AS A STOREKEEPER 83 

to exceed the tail-feathers of their judgment, and 
have woven a brilHant fabrication out of a very 
commonplace incident. 

The most zealous friend whom Lincoln had 
. on the field of conflict, aside from Offutt, was 
William G. Greene. He narrated the incident to 
me in this wise. It does not attest the strength 
of Samson to be a part of his friend's equipment, 
as other biographers do, but it does in a charac- 
teristic manner show his moral force. The two 
wrestlers caughts ''holts," and the contest began ; 

Long time in even scale the battle hung. 

In point of fact, the men were so easily balanced 
that not the slightest headway was made. 

Lincoln took the sensible view of the case then, 
as always. ''Let's quit," said he. "We are 
evenly matched, and we may as well quit even." 

The Clary Grove crowd foolishly deemed this 
frank confession as an exhibition of the "white 
feather," and a huge yell of derision and defiance 
enforced the decree that the contest must go on. 

Lincoln, now goaded to a sort of semi-despera- 
tion, profiting by his great strength, and roused 
to its highest pitch of achievement by the attend- 
ant excitement, fairly lifted his burly antagonist 
ofif his feet, but the dexterous wrestler, by an 
H adroit movement of his supple legs, landed 
squarely on his feet, instead of on his back as 
Lincoln had intended, and, in his turn, by what is 
termed in sporting vernacular a foul, threw Lin- 
coln. A victory thus achieved was only main- 
tainable by the ultima ratio re gum; in other 
words, by open war. 

Lincoln rose from the ground with every fea- 
ture indicative of vengeance. Said he, in a tone 



84 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

and manner which struck consternation to all 
present: "That won't do; and I'll show any one 
who doubts it, that it won't do. You can't make 
that game work with me !" The crowd understood 
perfectly what Lincoln meant ; and it was at once 
claimed that Jack took that mode of acceding to 
Lincoln's desire to end the contest by calling it 
a draiu. So the entente cordiale was restored, 
and Lincoln and Jack Armstrong became thence- 
forth the closest of friends, which amity and con- 
cord bound and em.braced the entire Armstrong 
family. In 1858 Lincoln saved a son of the fam- 
ily from the gallows, and during the war dis- 
charged him from service. 

It need scarcely be added that Lincoln's prow- 
ess and manhood were put to no further test in 
that neighborhood; but I should add that at an 
election held one year thereafter, at which Lin- 
coln was a candidate, every vote was cast for him 
from Clary's Grove — it would have been social 
ostracism to any one to do otherwise. 

Offutt's restless ambition demanded other 
worlds to conquer than a small store, so he added 
to his list of mercantile ventures a lease of the 
mill, and he then employed William G. Greene, 
a son of a neighboring family, aged eighteen or 
nineteen years, as an assistant. Between the two 
clerks a friendship and cordiality sprang up 
which lasted as long as the life of the senior. In 
fact, Mr. Greene, still alive, and now a wealthy 
banker and capitalist, avers that even in those 
rude days he had a belief that Lincoln was the 
greatest man who ever lived, and it is a source 
of great satisfaction to him to find the opinion 
of the polite world of this enlightened day and 
generation rapidly crystallizing to his belief. 



LINCOLN AS A STOREKEEPER 85 

Each morning the two clerks, and sometimes 
the proprietor, would wend their way down the 
slanting road which led to the bottom land north- 
ward, and proceed up the State road for three- 
quarters of a mile to a primitive farmstead 
owned by one Bowlin Greene, where they would 
get their breakfast, generally of bread and milk. 
They would greet their motherly hostess as Aunt 
Nancy. At noon and evening they would repeat 
this custom, for their boarding-place was at this 
farm, and they slept on a narrow cot in the loft 
of the store. 

Lincoln's morals were singularly chaste and 
pure for that day. Although the customs were 
wellnigh universal to drink, chew, smoke, and 
habitually swear, he indulged in none of these 
habits. Mr. Greene avers that he never saw him 
take a drink of liquor but once, and then he at 
once spat it out ; that he never chewed or smoked, 
and that he never swore but once in his presence 
(which I shall refer to again). 

Lincoln was also sedulous to impart moral in- 
struction when it could be effectually done, with- 
out improper intrusion upon the prejudices of 
the delinquent. William Greene was, like ordi- 
nary youth in those days, addicted to petty gam- 
bling, betting, etc. Lincoln perceived it, and one 
day said to his fellow clerk: "Billy, you ought 
to stop gambling with Estep." Greene rephed : 
'I'm ninety cents behind, and I can't quit till I've 
won it back." Said Lincoln: "If I'll help you 
win that back, will you promise never to gamble 
again?" Greene reflected a moment, and made 
the promise. Lincoln then said: "Here are hats 
which are on sale at seven dollars each, and you 
need one. Now, when Estep comes, you draw 



86 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

him on by degrees, and finally bet him one of 
those hats that I can lift a full forty-gallon barrel 
of whiskey, and take a drink out of the bung- 
hole." Accordingly they fixed the barrel so that 
the bunghole would be in the right place, and 
when the victim appeared, after a little parley- 
ing and bantering, the bet was made; Lincoln 
then squatted down and lifted one end of the 
barrel on one knee, and then lifted the other end 
on the other knee, and, stooping over, actually 
succeeded in taking a drink out of the bunghole, 
which, however, he immediately spat out. 
Greene thus won the hat, and never gambled 
again. 

Offutt soon ''busted-up," and left his creditors 
in the lurch; and Lincoln did odd jobs when and 
as he could, for a time. He had an assured home 
at Bowlin Greene's, and another at Jack Arm- 
strong's ; and when under the stress of difficulties 
he wended his way to one or the other with per- 
fect freedom, and was a welcome guest. 

Ten years thereafter, Mr. William G. Greene 
encountered Offutt at Memphis, Tenn., posing as 
a veterinary surgeon, and also as a horse-tamer. 
He was fantastically arrayed and prone to gar- 
rulity, but seemed to be eking out an existence 
by his calling. Let us not disdain this wild prod- 
uct of frontier civilization, however, for we 
should cherish and honor any agency in the evo- 
lution of Abraham Lincoln. Offutt was his gen- 
erous friend, and gave him his first start in life. 
Through his agency, Lincoln was transplanted 
from the sombre wilderness of Hanks's neigh- 
borhood to the more progressive conditions and 
more congenial surroundings of New Salem — 
his first living in an aggregate community. 



LINCOLN AS A STOREKEEPER 87 

As a merchant's clerk in New Salem had an 
abundance of leisure, Lincoln spent much time in 
reading and studying. He was never without a 
book. From Billy Greene he borrowed Kirkham's 
grammar, and from his brother, L. M. Greene, 
he also borrowed Lindley Murray's grammar; 
Ann Rutledge used to lend him her grammar 
to study of nights, and this same grammar is in 
possession of the Rutledge family with the name 
of the once fair owner on a fly-leaf, and that of 
the great Emancipator printed under it, both 
names inscribed by himself. 

Lincoln recited his lessons in grammar to 
Greene, and in three weeks knew as much of the 
subject as Greene. At Washington, in after 
years, Greene was in the Executive Chamber, and 
Lincoln took pride and pleasure in introducing 
Greene to members of his Cabinet and others as 
his ''grammar master." 

New Salem was bounded on the south by a 
ravine, at the foot of which flowed a rugged, 
sprightly rivulet termed "Rock Creek," or 
"Greene's Rocky Branch," which could be read- 
ily crossed by pedestrians. At the top of the 
ridge beyond this branch was a log schoolhouse 
in which one Mentor Graham, a professional 
pedagogue, kept school, and to which the chil- 
dren and youth of New Salem, and the adjacent 
country, repaired. Graham was devoted to his 
calling, for he taught in log schoolhouses for fifty 
consecutive years. 

Mentor lived at New Salem during his term 
of service on the adjacent hill, and to him Lin- 
coln applied for private tuition, with the result 
that he made rapid progress in mathematics, 
geography, grammar, and spelling. A favorite 



«« LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

diversion of his was to visit the Httle rustic 
school at spelHng- time, and sit on the back bench 
and listen attentively as the lesson progressed. 
Occasionally he would make some comment, as : 
*'I could almost spell that myself"; but his pres- 
ence was always welcome, and his intrusion was 
never reprobated. 

It was a marked characteristic of Lincoln that 
under all circumstances and in every condition, 
his mind was ever on the alert in pursuit of 
knowledge. Books were then very scarce, but he 
somehow obtained access to them and literally 
possessed himself of their contents, assimilating 
the knowledge to himself, and to his own needs. 
In reading his speeches and official documents, 
one can hardly conceive that their composer ac- 
quired his academical knowledge almost entirely 
out of school and without a teacher ; his spelling 
was almost without flaw, and his syntax practi- 
cally accurate. His faculty of composition was 
not only faultless, but embellished with the grace 
and adornment of belles-lettres. 

After Lincoln had terminated his novitiate in 
mercantile life with the downfall of Offutt, his 
next mercantile venture and experience was 
achieved in a mode peculiar, and possible only, 
to the business methods, or lack of any, of the 
frontier. 

It occurred thus : Reuben Radford brought a 
stock of goods to New Salem, and opened a store. 
He was duly warned against the idiosyncrasies 
of the "Clary's Grove boys," but incorrectly rea- 
soned that he could keep them under control, if 
he limited their allowance of drinks to two each. 
It so happened, however, that upon the occasion 
of their first visit to New Salem after his settle- 



LINCOLN AS A STOREKEEPER 89 

ment there, he was on a visit in the country three 
miles distant, and his young brother was in 
charge. 

After the crowd had drank twice around, the 
young clerk informed them that he had reached 
the limit of his orders, and that the faucet to the 
whiskey barrel was laid under an embargo till 
their next visit. That was an abnormal condi- 
tion of affairs, and not in accordance with the 
theory of government and latitudinarianism of 
conduct for which their forefathers ''fit," and 
they sought, but in vain, so to impress, by logical 
methods, the warden of the indispensable spiritus 
frumenti. But the youth was a rigid discipli- 
narian, and declined to yield; whereupon the 
crowd whipped out their horse pistols and made 
targets of the various alluring show bottles of 
whiskey which adorned the shelves, and in a few 
minutes spread chaos and devastation throughout 
the whole exterior. The "boys" then made good 
use of the exhilaration which an unHmited supply 
of whiskey superinduced, and riot reigned su- 
preme in that neighborhood, extending into the 
"wee sma' hours" of the succeeding morning. 
Shortly before day, Radford's peaceful sleep was 
disturbed by the bacchanalian yelling of the row- 
dies em route for their homes, and fearing danger 
at his store, he mounted his horse and rode post- 
haste toward the little hamlet. Billy Greene, 
then still a boy, was on his pony going early to 
mill. Seeing Radford dash past him, his horse 
reeking with sweat, he followed at a breakneck 
pace to learn the cause of such excitement. Rad- 
ford reached his store, and, hastily alighting, 
stood on the platform and gazed in at the open 
door with dismay upon the broken bottles and 



90 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

other debris of the saturnahan debauch. Greene, 
reaching the store a minute later, rode up to the 
open window just as Radford in desperation ex- 
claimed : 'TU sell out this whole 'shebang' at the 
first offer I get." Greene, at a venture, ex- 
claimed, "I offer $400." ''Done," said Radford ; 
"the concern's yours." "But I've got no money," 
said Greene. "Never mind about money," said 
the disgusted merchant. "Come right in and 
give me your note at six months," which Greene 
promptly and recklessly did. Radford bestrode 
his steed and left young Greene "monarch of all 
he surveyed." The store was located imme- 
diately opposite to the hotel (so-called) where 
Lincoln, at that time, abode. Just at this moment 
he appeared at the washstand out of doors. See- 
ing the youthful speculator, and divining his em- 
barrassment of riches, Lincoln said cheerily : 
"Hold on. Bill, till I get a bite of breakfast, an' 
we'll take an inventory and see what you've got." 
*'I doan' want any more inventory," was the re- 
ply. "The Clary Grovers have done all the in- 
ventoryin' I want." But after breakfast Lincoln 
and Greene went through the stock, and found 
that the stock was worth seven hundred and fifty 
dollars, at least. Lincoln was out of a job just 
then, and one William Berry was then also out 
of employment, but the possessor, just at that 
juncture, of two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, 
and a good horse, saddle, and bridle. In less 
than an hour from the time the inventory was 
made, a trade had been made as follows : Berry 
and Lincoln formed a partnership and bought out 
Greene ; Berry paid him two hundred and fifty 
dollars in cash and gave him the horse, saddle, 
and bridle, estimated at one hundred dollars, and 



LINCOLN AS A STOREKEEPER 9^ 

assumed payment of his debt to Radford, and 
Greene was to have the store receipts for that 
day. The new firm then went into possession 
and took in fifteen dollars and a Spanish shilling ; 
and young Greene, highly elated by his first busi- 
ness venture, rode home that night with two hun- 
dred and sixty-five dollars twelve and one-half 
cents and a horse, saddle, and bridle as a result 
of his investment of a boy's pluck and enterprise. 

The firm of Berry & Lincoln next absorbed 
the stock and business of a moribund firm en- 
titled James and Rowan Herndon. The new en- 
terprise was, however, greatly handicapped, first, 
by the lack of capital of the firm, and secondly, 
by the devotion of the senior partner to the whis- 
key jug, and of the junior partner to "star-eyed 
science." 

While Lincoln does not seem to have been ani- 
mated with any great ambition to achieve distinc- 
tion as a clerk or miller, he yet was rigidly hon- 
est as to money matters and to representations 
made in course of trade. He would not dissem- 
ble, color the truth, or excite a customer's desire 
to buy unnecessarily or beyond his means ; he 
frankly told good customers that the very 
whiskey which he drew for them would prove 
their ruin, and that the tobacco which he dealt 
out was nasty and unfit for use. If he knew 
nothing of the merits or quality of goods under 
review he frankly said so. His propensity to 
entertain by stories attracted customers to some 
extent, but the same tendency, likewise, ob- 
structed business, for it was no unusual spectacle 
of a Saturday to behold sales arrested, while 
Lincoln was regaling a crowd in the store by in- 
cidents, "airy nothings," but to which he gave 



92 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

"3. local habitation and a name.*' Upon such oc- 
casions uproarious laughter was heard from one 
end of the little hamlet to the other. Mrs. Hill 
says that she could always tell when Lincoln had 
let himself loose. She adds that his stories 
seemed never to lose interest, that his entertain- 
ments were apparently as fully appreciated in 
the fourth year of their run as during the first. 

So far as appeared, Lincoln did not seem to 
have any exalted ambition or towering aspira- 
tions. His juvenile prophecies of attaining the 
Presidency seem to have evanesced with his cal- 
low youth, and he seemed content to make both 
ends meet financially, to entertain his fellows 
with clownish antic and ludicrous stories, and to 
climb the hill of science in a usual way by aid 
of books and conversation with educated persons. 
He was not a brilliant genius, but a struggling, 
slow-plodding one. 



CHAPTER V 

SOLDIER, SURVEYOR, AND POSTMASTER 

I HAVE already stated that Lincoln's nature, 
disposition, and training indisposed him to stable 
and continuous business, and impelled him to 
change and desultory employments. Hence it 
was that the episode of the Black Hawk War 
was the precise sort of adventure which har- 
monized with his nature. This brief but thrill- 
ing episode in the early Illinois history oc- 
curred thus : One Mucata Muhicatah, mean- 
ing Black Hawk, was principal chief of the Sacs 
and Foxes, a tribe which occupied the northwest- 
ern part of Illinois, including the teeming Rock 
River valley. As early as 1804, General Harri- 
son, on behalf of the United States Government, 
made a treaty at St. Louis with several of the 
minor chiefs, for the cession of their country to 
the United States ; which treaty, after lying dor- 
mant and only partially executed for some years, 
was confirmed by the tribe in 1815 and 1816. 
The last treaties distinctly embraced in the ces- 
sion the great town of the Indians near the 
mouth of Rock River. Black Hawk was a proud, 
independent chieftain of great valor and renown, 
having been one of Tecumseh's chief councillors 
and warriors. His word was law to the better 
order of his tribe. He despised the Americait • 
pioneers, but was enamoured of the British. H^ 

93 



94 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

always denied the validity of the treaty, averring 
that it was made only with some of the minor 
chiefs, and then by chicanery and compulsion. 
These chiefs were imprisoned for murder, and 
the whites had made them drunk and then ex- 
torted the treaty from them as the price of their 
liberty. So Black Hawk resisted removal from 
the land, and had to be transported into Iowa 
by force. 

One provision of the treaty was that none of 
the tribe should revisit Illinois without first ob- 
taining leave of the President or of the Governor 
of Illinois. This permission, it is needless to 
say, it was not intended that they should ever 
obtain, although the whites led the Indians to 
suppose they could get it for the asking. Not 
being able to do so, Black Hawk invaded the 
State in the early spring of 1831 with his tribe, 
avowing his intention to ''plant corn" in the Rock 
River valley. 

General Gaines, then in command of the 
United States forces at Rock Island, called on 
the Governor of Illinois for seven hundred mi- 
litia to expel the Indians. Fifteen hundred came 
in response to the Governor's call. Abraham 
Lincoln was on his flatboat trip to New Orleans 
at the time, or he would probably have been 
among the volunteers. The troops marched 
against the Indians, who promptly ran away and 
recrossed into Iowa, abandoning their large town 
at the mouth of Rock River, v\^hich the troops 
burnt. Black Hawk himself then made a treaty, 
agreeing to remain west of the river. But with 
the advent of planting time the next season, the 
old chief gazed with covetous eyes upon the val- 
ley of so many bright reminiscences, before the 



SOLDIER, SURVEYOR, POSTMASTER 95 

spoilers came ; and allying Keokuk, another chief 
of renown with him, crossed the Mississippi 
again with all the warriors, braves, squaws, and 
papooses of the Sac and Fox nation. Again the 
United States commander called on the State au- 
thorities for a militia contingent. 

One of the normal incidents of frontier life is 
the maintenance of possession by force. The 
early Western pioneers attended their "logroll- 
ings" and "shindigs," gun on shoulder, and the 
animus of shooting Indians in their mind. 
Hence this call prognosticated a diversion to the 
frontiersmen of Illinois, and in response, eight- 
een hundred men met together at Beardstown, 
the period of enlistment being a term of thirty 
days. 

The spirit of mercantile adventure had 
"winked out" in the mind of Lincoln by this time. 
He was one of the first volunteers in the county 
of Sangamon. The rendezvous of the Sangamon 
contingent was about seven miles west of New 
Salem, and at that point the Adjutant General 
attended, in order to organize the company, the 
date being April 21, 1832. The chief candidate 
for captain was one William Fitzpatrick, a saw- 
miller. Lincoln had also been mentioned in a 
loose way for the distinction, although, unlike 
Fitzpatrick, he had not actually canvassed for the 
honor. It so happened that Lincoln had worked 
for Fitzpatrick, who had treated him meanly. 
So Lincoln was moved by more than ambition 
to enter into the contest. The men being mus- 
tered in line, the adjutant requested all who 
were candidates for the office of captain to ad- 
vance and face about at right angles to the line. 
Thereupon Lincoln and Fitzpatrick marched out. 



96 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

after which the order was g-iven for the men to 
file in line behind the candidate whose success 
they desired. The first man to move was Billy 
Greene, who planted himself squarely at Lin- 
coln's back. At the end of the voting Lincoln 
had double the number of Fitzpatrick's followers 
and seven more. While the vote was in progress 
and its issue was palpable, Lincoln, casting an 
eye rearward, placed his brawny hand on 
Greene's shoulder and exclaimed excitedly : "111 
be damned. Bill, but I've beat him." Mr. Greene, 
sixty years thereafter, informed me that that was 
the only time he ever heard Lincoln utter an 
oath. Lincoln informed me in general terms of 
this, his first candidacy, and observed that no 
event of his life ever gave him such a thrill of 
happiness as this triumph. 

This so-called war was replete with wild inci- 
dents and some massacre, although nowhere did 
it attain the dignity of genuine civilized warfare. 
In fact, it had more the substance of a grand 
frolic. Its noted features, so far as Lincoln was 
concerned, were in his being mustered into 
service by Robert Anderson, then a Lieutenant, 
and, in 1861, Major in command at Charleston, 
and in the fact that Jefferson Davis, likewise a 
Lieutenant, was engaged in the same unheroic 
enterprise. 

The reckless character of the recruits forbade 
any enforcement of discipline. Each man felt 
himself to be as good as any other, the offi- 
cers included, and respect of the latter was 
only to be hoped for by force of character, and 
in no wise by virtue of dignity or conventional 
rank. 

Lincoln was as closely environed by this con- 



SOLDIER, SURVEYOR, POSTMASTER 97 

dition of affairs as the others, but it was in no 
wise galling to him. He was always, in little or 
supreme greatness alike, quite willing to abnegate 
his rank and title, and rely exclusively for "au- 
dience and attention" on his manhood and moral 
force. 

To one of his earliest orders about an un- 
important matter, it was suggested that he "go 
to hell," and when Lincoln interposed to save a 
captive Indian from unmerited and unauthorized 
death at the hands of his own men, he was 
branded as a coward, to which his sole and con- 
clusive reply was : "Any one who raly thinks I'm 
a coward, can soon be convinced of his mistake, 
if he so desires." 

A trifling incident, however, exhibited the 
force of will and estimation in which Lincoln 
was held by his followers. There was in Captain 
Henry L. Webb's company from Union County 
a very strong and athletic man named Nathan M. 
Thompson, nicknamed "Dow" Thompson. The 
question of comparative muscular strength aris- 
ing between him and Lincoln, they resorted to a 
wrestling match, in order to decide it. After 
struggling for a while with no advantage either 
way, Lincoln said : "This is the strongest man I 
ever met." Soon thereafter, amid great and 
growing excitement, Lincoln was fairly thrown. 
This was for the first time in his life. The 
wrestlers took hold again, and a second time Lin- 
coln was thrown. Instantly a hundred men 
jerked off their coats, crying ''Foul!" An equal 
number on the other side followed suit, crying, 
"We'll see if it zvas." A deadly fight seemed 
imminent, but Lincoln commanded attention, and 
said : "Boys, this man can throw me fairly, if 



98 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

he didn't do it this time; so let's give up that I 
was beat fairly." 

Peace reigned at once, for, as my informant 
said, *'His word was more than law and gospel" 
to his followers. 

That Lincoln was fond of the tented field is 
palpable in this, that after his original term of 
service and his captaincy was at an end, he re- 
enlisted as a private in Captain Elijah Iles's com- 
pany, and served as such to the end of the 
service. 

For this service, besides his pay of eleven dol- 
lars per month and one ration a day from the 
general government, he likewise obtained under 
an Act of Congress enacted in 1850, a land war- 
rant, No. 52,076, for forty acres of government 
land, which he caused to be located in his own 
name on July 21, 1854, on the northwest quarter 
of the southwest quarter of Section 20, T. 84, 
North Range 39 West, in Iowa, and in the suc- 
ceeding year, he obtained a patent therefor, 
which is recorded in Vol. 280, page 21, of United 
States Patents. Also under the Act of 1855, ^^ 
received still another land warrant : No. 68,465, 
for one hundred and twenty acres, was issued 
to him on April 22, 1856, and located by him on 
December 2^, 1859, on the east half of the north- 
east quarter, and the northwest quarter of the 
northeast quarter of Section 18, T. 84, North 
Range 39 West, in the State of Illinois ; for this 
a patent was issued on September 10, i860, and 
recorded in Vol. 458, page 53, of Patents. 

Lincoln returned from the war (so-called) to 
New Salem in August, 1832, and found the busi- 
ness of Berry & Lincoln in a hopeless tangle 
and pretty well played-out. So he and his luck- 



SOLDIER, SURVEYOR, POSTMASTER 99 

less partner sold out to some parties named Trent 
wholly on tick. These soon "busted-up," and 
left the town. Shortly thereafter Berry died in- 
solvent, and Lincoln was left not only without 
employment, but owing eight hundred dollars to 
a prairie Shylock named Van Bergen, who had 
bought for a song the notes of Lincoln and 
Berry, given in payment for the stores of Rad- 
ford and the Herndons. Eight hundred dollars 
was then a far greater sum than it would be now, 
and Lincoln was accustomed to call his obliga- 
tions the national debt. Billy Greene was an en- 
dorser for two-thirds of the amount, which he 
paid, and Lincoln ultimately repaid him. Finally, 
however, Lincoln paid the entire debt, principal 
and interest, amounting to about eleven hundred 
dollars ; the last payment being made about the 
year 1850. 

While Lincoln was in the army, encouraged 
thereto by the flattering vote received by him for 
captain, he avowed his purpose to run for the 
Legislature in the fall. Accordingly he pre- 
sented himself as a candidate to some of the 
voters at an executor's sale at Pafifsville, a small 
hamlet, now extinct, located in the western part 
of the county. Before the political element of 
the gathering was brought into play a fight oc- 
curred, in which Lincoln acted as peacemaker by 
hurling the ringleader up in the air, so that, when 
he lit, he was too much surprised to resume the 
fray, and it ended then and there. 

Lincoln then made his first speech intended 
for a practical object; it was about thus: "Fel- 
ler citizens : I reckon you all know me ; Lm 
Abe Lincoln. Lm runnin' for the Legislature. 
I needn't take long to give you my principles. I 



lOo LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

am a National Bank man ; I also am a high-tariff 
man ; and in favor of all internal improvements 
Vv'hich may be needful. As I am runnin', I of 
course want to be elected; and I hope all my 
friends, or the friends of the above principles, 
will vote for me. That is all. I thank you for 
your attention, and I will thank you still more 
if I get your votes." 

Lincoln himself, however, did not expect to be 
elected ; he had no general acquaintance, and he 
held such radical views on the subject of the 
navigation of the Sangamo River that he was 
regarded by the matter-of-fact voters as loony. 
Some of the boys even deemed his candidacy as 
a joke; they supposed they would garner a boun- 
tiful crop of fun and diversion, and hence en- 
couraged him in his ambition. The responsible 
voters, however, could not seriously believe that 
so ill-dressed and fresh a spectacle could decently 
represent this important and populous county in 
the Legislature, yet he received 657 votes, head- 
ing the list of five other defeated candidates. In 
his own precinct of New Salem he obtained 277 
votes out of a total of 280 votes. 

Lincoln was now entirely out of business and 
quite uncertain of the future. He had among 
his close and intimate friends at New Salem one 
Miller, a blacksmith ; him he consulted as to the 
feasibility of adopting that calling, but he took 
no practical steps in that direction. Destiny had 
a higher mission in store for him. 

He did not, in point of fact, enter upon the 
performance of any stated or systematic labor. 
Occasionally he would ''clerk" for a day, help in 
the cornfield, chop logs, or build fences. He was 
fond of visiting Bowlin Greene, or Jack Arm- 



SOLDIER, SURVEYOR, POSTMASTER loi 

strong, and staying for days at a time, during 
which visits he would indifferently aid the men 
in their out-of-door work, and help the women 
with their milking, rocking the cradle, or other 
feminine employments. So he was exceedingly 
popular with every inmate of the households of 
his hosts. 

While in the war, he became intimately ac- 
quainted with John T. Stuart, a Springfield law- 
yer, and having revealed his ultimate intention 
to become a lawyer, was invited to make use of 
his law library when he desired. 

Accordingly Lincoln started early one morn- 
ing for Springfield, and returned the same even- 
ing with Blackstone's ''Commentaries," then pub- 
lished in four volumes. During his walk back to 
New Salem he had managed to read a large num- 
ber of the pages of the first volume. Thereafter 
he might be seen either lying prone upon the 
ground, or seated upon the woodpile, or in any 
other place suitable for study, abstracted from 
the outer world, and wholly occupied with the 
volume before him. Russel Godby, an emigrant 
from Logan County, Virginia, without a particle 
of education or ideality, once saw Lincoln sitting 
astride a woodpile with a book in his hand. Lin- 
coln had worked for him, and he regarded him 
in no different light from that of any other field 
hand, doomed through life to the dreary tread- 
mill round of paid farm labor. Struck with 
surprise, Godby asked, ''What's that you're 
readin', Abe?" "Lm not readin', I'm studyin'," 
was the reply. "Studyin' what?" "Law," re- 
plied Abe. "Great God Almighty l" exclaimed 
Godby. 

At the same time that Lincoln was studying 



I0 2 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

all the law books he could get his hands on, he 
read all the papers which he could borrow, and 
was fully advised as to the general facts of cur- 
rent and political history. He also gave some 
attention to current light literature, and enjoyed 
with great relish funny books. At that time 
Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz was quite a prolific au- 
thor of sensational novels, and Lincoln read 
many of her works. 

In the spring of 1833 John Calhoun, then sur- 
veyor of Sangamon County, designated him as 
deputy surveyor. Lincoln procured somehow an 
outfit, secured needed instruction from the peda- 
gogue. Mentor Graham, and entered upon the 
duties of his office with zeal. He gave universal 
satisfaction, and was continued in office by Cal- 
houn's successor; in fact, he held the office until 
his removal to Springfield. 

Many examples of his work are still extant 
in Menard County, where he was principally em- 
ployed, and are shown with proud satisfaction 
by their owners. Russel Godby employed him 
to do some surveying, and paid him two deer- 
skins and one dollar for the job; Jack Arm- 
strong's wife Hannah used the skins to repair 
Lincoln's ragged pantaloons. 

The city of Petersburgh, the present county- 
seat of Menard County, is one of the most pret- 
tily situated and pretentious of the third-rate 
towns of Illinois. Lincoln laid it out, setting the 
first monument at the southwest corner of the 
public square, where it still remains. He then 
turned his compass southward, but found in the 
line of vision a storehouse belonging to a friend. 
Here was a dilemma of a kind that frequently 
arose in his subsequent career — the conflict be- 



SOLDIER, SURVEYOR, POSTMASTER 103 

tvveen sympathy and official duty. Friends ap- 
plied to him for offices they were unfit to fill, 
and tearful wives and mothers on bended knees 
implored him to save their husbands and sons 
from merited punishment. So here official duty 
required an accurate survey, consideration for 
the householder a deviation from it. He solved 
it in characteristic fashion by an adjustment: he 
contrived to divert his bearings enough to save 
the storehouse from removal, but so slightly that 
no succeeding surveyor has called the survey in 
question. 

The founding of Petersburgh was the down- 
fall of New Salem. In a year from the date of 
Lincoln's survey the place began to grow, and 
its site was so far superior to that of New Salem 
that it at once gained all accretions of population, 
and the latter place yielded to the inevitable, and 
was very soon a thoroughly deserted village. 
Not a structure now remains, and the sites of 
many of the former buildings are in dispute. 

At the same time that he was a surveyor, Lin- 
coln received from Andrew Jackson, Presideat 
of the United States, the appointment of Post- 
master of New Salem, vice John McNamar, who 
had gone East for a year, and consequently had 
resigned the office. Both duties and emoluments 
were slight. The mail came once a week by 
stage, and the bulk of it was distributed within 
an hour after its arrival. When Lincoln quit the 
office, he owed the Government a small balance 
which some obstacle prevented his placing to the 
credit of the Post-office Department; so he 
wrapped it up in a scrap of paper, indicated its 
ownership by a memorandum, and laid it by. 
When years thereafter an agent of the Depart- 



I04 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

ment called on him for settlement, Lincoln with- 
drew from a safe place this identical parcel, and 
paid it over. 

Lincoln had many residences at New Salem ; 
in fact, there were many homes always eager to 
welcome him as an inmate. He lived at Bowlin 
Greene's, Jack Armstrong's, Rowan Herndon's, 
and at the tavern kept by James Rutledge. Part 
of the time he slept in the loft over a store ; in- 
deed for a time he slept on the store counter of 
Offutt's store. 

Billy Greene paid off that part of Lincoln's debt 
for which he stood as security, but Van Bergen 
brought suit on the other part, and getting judg- 
ment, sold on execution everything that Lincoln 
had on earth except the clothes on his back. But 
Lincoln's friends came to the rescue, and by gen- 
eral agreement suppressed competitive bidding. 
One of them, James Short, bid in all the goods, 
and presented them to Lincoln. His horse, com- 
pass and chain, and saddlebags were among the 
effects. 

It was while living at this place that Lincoln 
first acquired the sobriquet of ''Honest" Abe. 
As a judge of scrub races, or wrestling bouts, or 
of bets, his services were sought by all sides, and 
always acquiesced in, with no heartburnings. 

He was then, as thereafter, extremely bashful ; 
he avoided waiting on women at the store or 
meeting them casually. Once a family of ladies 
stopped at the hotel while he was a boarder there, 
and he failed to appear at the public table while 
they were there. 

He was very popular with the men, and also 
with the women, such as Nancy Greene and Han- 
nah Armstrong, by whom he was made to feel 



SOLDIER, SURVEYOR, POSTMASTER 105 

"at home." His story-telling, mimicry, and over- 
flowing goodness were all felt and appreciated. 
Whenever he chose to let himself out on pleasan- 
tries, he drew a crowd ; and if he chanced to shift 
his seat, the crowd followed him. His drolleries 
were repeated at every gathering and at every 
fireside, and he was universally commended in 
terms of unstinted praise. 

Another Legislature was to be chosen in the 
fall of 1834, and Lincoln was elected by a hand- 
some majority. Duly impressed with the impor- 
tance of his representative character, he borrowed 
two hundred dollars of one Coleman Smoot in 
order to buy his first decent outfit in which to 
respectably appear at Vandalia, in a Legislature 
which was a mosaic of Federal aristocracy and 
backwoods democracy. He made his "touch" in 
characteristic fashion : "Smoot, you voted for 
me to represent you at Vandalia, and so made 
yourself responsible that I shall do so creditably." 

While Lincoln was not admitted to the bar till 
March, 1837, he yet practised, informally, at 
New Salem while he was still a student. His 
friend Bowlin Greene was a Justice of the Peace, 
and Edmond Grier, the schoolmaster, officiated 
also as a Justice. Lincoln not only "pettifogged" 
cases before them, but did sundry office work, 
such as drafting deeds, wills, contracts, etc. In 
everything he undertook, he gave satisfaction. 
Lincoln failed nowhere and in nothing; he was a 
genius of affairs, and, commencing at the lowest 
round of the ladder, he reached the top round 
without a misstep or misadventure of any kind. 

Lincoln's religious views were not very clear 
or well settled at this time. He believed in fatal- 
ism, and that we were impelled along in the jour- 



io6 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

ney of life with no freedom of the moral will. 
Owing to a line of remark he was once indulging 
in, Mrs. Samuel Hill said: ''You surely don't 
mean that there's not to be an hereafter?" 'Tm 
afeered there ain't," was the reply; "but it's an 
awful thing to think that when we die, that's the 
end of us." He wrote a small monograph on his 
religious views which he read to several people, 
including Samuel Hill. Hill urged him to aban- 
don such extreme heterodoxy, assuring him that 
he had a brilliant and useful public career before 
him, which an indulgence in such views would 
tend to cloud. Finally, taking the book. Hill 
thrust it into the fire, where it was consumed. 
Lincoln lived to change his religious views radi- 
cally, as I shall show, but being brought up on the 
frontier, with little religious training, and with 
the uninspiring example of Thomas Lincoln as a 
church member constantly before him, and hav- 
ing no ingrained element of inspiring faith in 
his nature, it is little wonder that in his callow 
youth his views on religion were loose and 
superficial. 



CHAPTER VI 

Lincoln's early love romance 

However, Abraham Lincoln had his share o£ 
natural human passion, if not of religious senti- 
ment. One of the great psychic crises of his ca- 
reer was his tragic love affair with Miss Ann 
Mays Rutledge. This young lady was one of the 
children of James Rutledge, one of the founders 
of New Salem. Ann was in her sixteenth year 
when the Rutledges came to New Salem in 1828 
or 1829. She was very handsome: tall, symmet- 
rical, inclined to plumpness, with fair complexion, 
rosy cheeks, and dark auburn hair. Her manners 
were graceful, and she was self-possessed, had 
an excellent address, was courteous and digni- 
fied, and, though raised chiefly on the frontier, 
had the ambition, deportment, and bearing of a 
well-bred lady. She was a dashing and fearless 
rider, making a striking appearance on horse- 
back, which was her favorite mode of locomotion 
in her journeys throughout the neighborhood. 
Her beautiful character and winning ways en- 
deared her to young and old. As may be in- 
ferred, she smote the hearts and engaged the sus- 
ceptibilities of all the marriageable youth of the 
settlement, among whom were Samuel Hill and 
John McNeil, partners in trade, and the leading 
merchants of New Salem. She capitulated to 
McNeil's attentions, and they became betrothed 
107 



io8 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

in 1833. This young man had migrated from 
New York State in 1829, and by good manage- 
ment and shrewd business methods had acquired 
a farm and a handsome sum of money for those 
primitive days. 

Just after his betrothal, however, his father 
died, making it necessary that he should return 
to his childhood's home and settle the estate. 
This, he supposed, would consume a year, and, 
promising to return at the expiration of this pe- 
riod, he took leave of his fiancee and went, after 
the manner of those days, on horseback to New 
York. A sad domestic calamity befalling his 
family, one incident of which was a lawsuit which 
was greatly delayed, extended his Eastern so- 
journ. The time elapsed for his return, and he 
still remained absent, and, moreover, gave no sat- 
isfactory excuse for his prolonged absence. This 
of itself caused uneasiness on the part of Ann 
and her family, which reached a climax when a 
report became current in the neighborhood that 
a local blight had fallen upon the family at home, 
and that the object of her affection himself had 
lived at New Salem and pledged himself in be- 
trothal under an assumed name. 

Now pride of name was a characteristic of the 
Rutledges. They were descended from the re- 
nowned family of that name in South Carolina 
which had included a signer of the Declaration 
of Independence, a nominated Chief Justice of 
the United States, Congressmen, etc. 

The existence of these rumors filled the souls 
of the Rutledges with consternation, for it 
seemed apparent to them that the alias was em- 
ployed as a shield for some dark and indelible 
disgrace. Ann avowed that she would never 



LINCOLN'S EARLY LOVE ROMANCE 109 

give the report credence till she received it from 
the inculpated party himself. This opportunity 
was not long wanting, for it had happened that 
McNeil had bought a tract of land of her uncle 
Cameron just before he left, and had himself 
signed the deed. It was supposed, and, as the 
sequel proved, properly,that McNeil would insert 
his correct name in the deed, inasmuch as he de- 
sired to trade off this land at his Eastern home. 

The matter was discussed at a family council, 
and it was proposed to ascertain from the records 
at Springfield in what name McNeil had taken 
the title to this land. Ann insisted on forming 
one of the party of inspection, averring with 
firmness and emphasis that she would not believe 
the perfidy and disgrace of her affianced lover 
upon any less indubitable evidence than that of 
her own senses. Accompanied by her brother 
David (then a law student) and her uncle Cam- 
eron, she rode on horseback to Springfield, where 
they found that Ann's lover had signed the name 
McNamar to the deed — proof positive that he 
had wooed, won, and plighted his troth to her 
under the felon's artifice of an alias. 

Arrived at home, Miss Rutledge promptly 
wrote her recreant lover an account of his ap- 
parent infamy, and demanded an instant expla- 
nation. In due time an answer came, stating 
nonchalantly that he would explain fully when 
he saw her. She then wrote a curt note, abruptly 
dismissing him. 

McNamar, however, affected to believe that 
she spoke in a Pickwickian sense, for he con- 
tinued to regard himself as her affianced ; and 
started West with his mother, brother, and sis- 
ters. For some reason, not plainly apparent, he 



iio LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

stopped in Ohio, rented a farm, and remained 
for a year. Then, in 1835, he wrote to Ann that 
he should buy furniture in Cincinnati, and be 
there soon after his letter was, to claim her in 
marriage, and settle down to housekeeping. 
This letter, however, was never read by her for 
whom it was intended, for the eyes which should 
have read it were by this time sealed in death. 
Sure enough, in November, 1835, McNamar, his 
family, and furniture, reached New Salem, there 
to learn the startling news that his misconduct 
had hastened the death of her with whose virgin 
affections he had cruelly and inexcusably trifled. 
The wagon was unladen, and the bedroom set, 
which was to have graced the nuptials of the 
young couple, stood out of doors in the weather, 
through the rigors of the early winter. 

The disgrace of betrothal to a man who posed 
under the baleful shadow of an alias, and de- 
clined to explain to her who had a right to de- 
mand it, had told upon the proud and supersen- 
sitive nature of this ambitious and spirited girl, 
and a settled melancholy took possession of her 
nature. 

Lincoln, like the rest, was not insensible to the 
beauty, charms, and merit of this most estimable 
girl, whom, of course, he had seen often and 
whose relations to McNamar he had known and 
respected ; and when she had dismissed her re- 
creant lover, Lincoln mustered up courage to ad- 
dress her in terms of sympathy and endearment, 
and finally to propose marriage to her. This pro- 
posal the young lady was certainly free to accept 
if she chose, yet she desired first to receive a 
ratification of her dismissal of McNamar, before 
she made any new engagement. This ratifica- 



LINCOLN'S EARLY LOVE ROMANCE m 

tion, however, never came ; McNamar had her 
promise and meant to hold her to it. She finally, 
however, on the advice of her friends, disdained 
longer to be technically bound to a man who had 
deceived her, and she became the affianced of 
Lincoln. The family had meanwhile left New 
Salem and then resided at Concord, several miles 
north, and it was arranged between them that 
Lincoln should study law during the succeeding 
fall and winter at Springfield, while Ann should 
attend the Seminary at Jacksonville for the same 
time, and that in the spring the marriage should 
take place, and the twain should reside at 
Springfield. 

But on the twelfth day of August, she took to 
her bed with a raging brain-fever, largely in- 
duced by the mental anguish of engaging herself 
to a polynomial lover, who had so sulHed his 
real name as to render a disguise necessary, and 
then, while not yet released by him from her en- 
gagement, of affiancing herself to another. Her 
illness caused serious alarm to her physician and 
the members of her family. Lincoln and her 
brother David, who was attending school at Jack- 
sonville, were at once sent for. When Lincoln 
entered her room, she urgently requested to be 
left alone with him for a short time, which re- 
quest was allowed. After the lapse of a half- 
hour, Lincoln came out of the bedchamber, be- 
traying signs of extreme and pitiable grief. Her 
brother came later, but she did not recognize him. 
She died on August 25, 1835, of brain-fever. 

The remains of this unfortunate girl were con- 
signed to their mother earth in Concord burial 
ground, and should have been suffered to remain 
there till aroused and animated by the Angel of 



XI2 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

the Resurrection, but it was not to be so. Re- 
cently an enterprising undertaker who desired to 
advertise his cemetery at Petersburgh, with the 
assent of the scattered and few members of the 
family then living, invaded the sanctity of the 
grave, and, gathering together the mouldering 
bones, the buttons of her shroud and a few rusty 
nails of her coffin, carted them off in triumph to 
Oakland Cemetery near Petersburgh, and there 
reinterred them, where it is to be hoped that no 
dime museum proprietor or other enterprising 
ghoul will bid high enough to have them again 
exhumed for further speculation. 

Lincoln was completely prostrated and un- 
nerved by the death of his fiancee. He took it 
so deeply to heart that the universal pity which 
had animated all breasts for the "loved and lost" 
was transferred to him. His friends condoled 
with him, and tried, by every mode, to mitigate his 
sorrow. "Bear it like a man," said one. "I'll try," 
said he, "but I must first feel it like a man." His 
grief did not abate, and it was feared that he 
would be bereft of his reason. When storms 
would come, he would grow nervous and almost 
frantic. "The rains shan't beat on my darling's 
grave," said he passionately and piteously. He 
v/ould steal away to the little graveyard, and sit 
and commune with the dead for hours. His 
friends deemed it unsafe to leave him alone, and, 
by strategy, induced him to stay at his old friend 
Bowlin Greene's till time and reflection should 
assuage his grief. The device measurably suc- 
ceeded ; he grew less excitable and less pas- 
sionate in his grief, and settled down to a 
chronic condition of apparently hopeless despair. 
He would sit by himself in solitude, apparently 



LINCOLN'S EARLY LOVE ROMANCE 113 

dominated by his grief, a habit he exhibited at in- 
tervals through life. He would wander off alone 
with no apparent aim or object, and would occa- 
sionally break out in meaningless soliloquy — 
a habit which never left him, and of which I fur- 
nish examples in my "Life on the Circuit with 
Lincoln." 

Dr. Duncan of New Salem came across a poem 
in an almanac, which he repeated to Lincoln by 
way of solace to his wounded spirit, and the lat- 
ter by his adoption of it as his favorite poem, 
conferred upon it the spirit and essence, as it 
had before the name, of "Immortality." 

It reads thus : 



Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud? 
Like a swift, fleeting meteor — a fast-flying cloud — 
A flash of the lightning — a break of the wave — 
He passeth from life to his rest in the grave. 

The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, 
Be scattered around, and together be laid ; 
And the young, and the old, and the low, and the high. 
Shall moulder to dust and together shall lie. 

The infant, a mother attended and loved ; 
The mother, that infant's affection who proved ; 
The father, that mother and infant who blest — 
Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest. 

The maid on whose brow, on whose cheek, in whose eye. 
Shone beauty and pleasure — her triumphs are by; 
And ahke from the minds of the living erased 
Are the memories of those who loved her and praised. 

The hand of the king, that the sceptre hath borne, 
The brow of the priest, that the mitre hath worn. 
The eye of the sage, and the heart of the brave, 
Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave. 



114 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap ; 
The herdsman, who chmbed with his goats up the steep ; 
The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread; 
Have faded away like the grass that we tread. 

The saint, who enjoyed the communion of heaven; 
The sinner, who dared to remain unforgiven ; 
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just, 
Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust. 

So the multitude goes, like the flower or weed. 
That withers away to let others succeed; 
So the multitude comes, even those we behold, 
To repeat every tale that has often been told. 

For we are the same our fathers have been ; 
We see the same sights our fathers have seen ; 
We drink the same stream, we view the same sun, 
And run the same course our fathers have run. 

The thoughts we are thinking our fathers did think ; 
From the death we are shrinking our fathers did shrink; 
To the life we are clinging our fathers did cling — 
But it speeds from us all like a bird on the wing. 

They loved — but the story we cannot unfold ; 
They scorned — but the heart of the haughty is cold ; 
They grieved — but no wail from their slumber will come; 
They joyed — but the tongue of their gladness is dumb. 

They died — ay! they died — we things that are now. 
That walk on the turf that lies over their brow, 
And make in their dwellings a transient abode. 
Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road. 

Yea, hope and despondency, pleasure and pain, 
Are mingled together in sunshine and rain ; 
And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge, 
Still follow each other, like surge upon surge. 

'Tis the wink of an eye ; 'tis the draught of a breath. 
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death; 
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud — 
Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud? 



LINCOLN'S EARLY LOVE ROMANCE ^S 

Lincoln often tried to find the name of the 
author of the poem, but never succeeded. It was 
Wilham Knox, a Scotchman. Lincoln was wont 
to repeat these verses upon all occasions, and 
especially by himself when he supposed no ear 
but his own heard him. And on the occasion of 
the death of President Taylor, he, being at Chi- 
cago, made a speech at the celebration of the ob- 
sequies, in the course of which he repeated the 
poem. 

Lincoln was never the same man after the 
death of Ann Rutledge that he was before. He 
never ceased to mourn and bewail her loss ; but 
he lived a man's life thereafter, and carried out 
the plan devised for him by destiny, as he best 
could. 

About a mile below New Salem, on the crest 
of a hill overlooking the broad river bottom, and 
on a farm adjacent to that of Bowlin Greene, 
lived Bennett Able and family, who had emi- 
grated there from Green County, Kentucky. 
Mrs. Able had been an Owens, from Green 
County, but had incurred the displeasure of her 
father by espousing a man not of his choice ; and, 
in point of fact, she was superior in education and 
refinement to her husband. Lincoln was a wel- 
come visitor at the Able household, and Mrs. 
Able had often remarked that she was going to 
bring about a match between him and her sister 
Mary; and, in point of fact, Mary had visited 
her sister in 1833, and remained a month, leaving 
an excellent impression upon the minds of all, as 
to her person and character. She returned again 
in November, 1836, some fifteen months after 
the death of Ann Rutledge. She was about four 
and a half months older than Lincoln. While 



Ii6 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

she was not so lovely a character and did not 
possess so sweet a disposition as Miss Rutledge, 
she yet was a very handsome and brilliant girl, 
and gifted with rare talents that had been cul- 
tivated and polished with a high and liberal edu- 
cation. So far as she was concerned, her visit 
to her sister had no significance beyond the naked 
fact itself, but it is not unlikely that Mrs. Able 
had loftier aims, namely, bringing about a match 
with a man already entered upon a promising 
political career. 

Mrs. Able was incautious enough to promul- 
gate her design so publicly that her sister heard 
of it, and also heard that Lincoln had said that 
if Mrs. Abie's sister Mary ever came to New 
Salem again, he would have to marry her. 
**We'll see," soliloquized the Bluegrass beauty; 
"it takes two to make such a bargain." Other 
beaux stood back, however (if there were any), 
and Lincoln had full swing, and the courtships 
such as it was, progressed at cross-purposes. In 
the first place, despite Lincoln's pubHc career, he 
was a timid and bashful man, especially as re- 
gards the gentler sex; then he was conscious of 
the wide disparity of culture and style between 
Miss Owens and himself ; likev/ise of the extreme 
contrasts between her beauty and grace and his 
plainness and angularity. His wealth of talent 
he gave no credit to in the comparison ; he merely 
took a superficial glance at the account in which 
everything was plus on the lady's side, and miiius 
on his side, with the always inevitable result that 
what was embarrassment and bashfulness on his 
part, she accepted and considered as indifference 
and disdain. On the other hand, what was 
playful reproof on her part for his social delin- 



LINCOLN'S EARLY LOVE ROMANCE ii7 

quencies, was construed by him into pride and 
arrogance. 

It appears to me conclusive that if Lincoln had 
dealt with this estimable and refined young lady 
in a spirit of his usual candor and naturalness, 
and had properly wooed her, there would have 
been no difficulty in the way of a match. 
Lincoln felt a sense of inferiority, for which the 
fair charmer gave no occasion, and he only 
played at courting, not pressing his suit in the 
manly and dignified way so characteristic of him 
in other roles. 

For instance, Nancy Greene was carrying a 
heavy child from her house, up a steep hill, to 
Abie's house, and was accompanied by Miss 
Owens. It was evident that Mrs. Greene was 
very much exhausted, yet Lincoln, who joined 
and accompanied them, made no offer of assist- 
ance. Miss Owens could not fail to take note of 
her gallant's delinquency, and told her sister, who 
repeated it to Lincoln, that she did not think Lin- 
coln would make a good husband. Yet his rea- 
son was, as he informed Greene, who informed 
me, that he was ashamed to be seen by a lady of 
Miss Owens's culture carrying a baby. At another 
time Miss Owens, with Lincoln as her escort, 
went out riding with a party. In crossing a deep 
stream, Lincoln forged on ahead, leaving his 
partner to get on as she could. Being reproved 
for this, he told her she was smart enough to 
get over alone; but the probabilities are that he 
had embarked upon, and was lost in the midst of, 
some reflections, or else he felt that his awk- 
wardness in attempting to be gallant to a cul- 
tured lady would be worse than neglect. How- 
ever that may be, Miss Owens, while holding 



ii8 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

Lincoln in high esteem, as every one did, felt, as 
she said years later, that "he was deficient in 
those minor attentions and little civilities which 
constitute the chain of a woman's happiness." 

Lincoln wrote her some letters after he settled 
in Springfield as a lawyer, but they were of a 
decidedly repelling character; and the lady took 
him at his word. As I have said, he felt him- 
self beneath her in a social sense, and the mis- 
takes, misunderstandings, and contretemps which 
arose from this anomalous condition of affairs 
prevented, in my judgment, a matrimonial union 
which would have been congenial and prosper- 
ous, for Miss Owens was polished, brilliant, and 
amiable, and Lincoln had nearly every element 
to make a good husband. 

In 1839, Lincoln said to Mrs. Able, who was 
returning to her childhood's home : "Tell your 
sister Mary that I think she was a great fool that 
she didn't remain here and marry me." * 

While Mr. Lincoln's exploits in his callow 
youth are of minor interest and of less utility, 
and certainly not worth the serious efforts em- 
ployed in their development, it should also not 
be forgotten that the communities amid which 
he was reared were extremely primitive and un- 
couth, and that the elements of wonder, mystery, 
and hyperbole were conspicuous, involving 
marked inaccuracies in portraying the idiosyn- 
crasies of conduct in an original or otherwise 



* I cannot refrain from saying that the letter to Mrs. 
Browning by Mr. Lincoln about this estimable and re- 
fined lady should never have strayed beyond Mrs. 
Browning's desk. It was an unworthy thing for her 
to give it to Mr. Herndon, and equally unworthy for 
him and Lamon to give it to the world. 



LINCOLN'S EARLY LOVE ROMANCE 119 

remarkable character. Hence the frontier nar- 
ratives of the embryonic President's character- 
istics should not be too implicitly relied on. The 
stories which ascribe to him the persiflage of a 
fool or the vulgarity of a boor have no force of 
authority to me. From the simplicity of his ori- 
gin and surroundings and the environments of 
his condition, he was of necessity rustic, uncouth, 
and unassimilated, but this crudity was only the 
rock-crystal holding in place the pure metal of 
his character, which shone so resplendently in 
later years. All that is needful to be said of his 
career during his life in Indiana is that if the 
diary of the modern Pepys be correct, the mind 
of the coming man in its impressionable state, 
as it developed, was a rank, luxuriant garden of 
thought, but that for lack of proper culture it 
yielded only weeds in which satire, sarcasm, 
coarse wit, irony, and eccentric pasquinades were 
ill assorted with moral apothegms, sage but 
immature reflections, and an ostentatious exhibit 
of rustic philosophy ; that even then he had an 
exuberant cacoethes loqiiendi, and was a leader 
of men in embryo ; that he was restless, uneasy, 
and prone to adventure, and that kindness, hu- 
manity, and philanthropy were essential elements 
of his nature. 

His five years' residence at New Salem was 
passed under more favorable external conditions ; 
his mental and moral horizon had been largely 
widened by two trips to New Orleans, and, in 
consequence, his character in this time begins to 
assume a semblance of harmony and logical con- 
sistency, and to afford a glimpse of the psychical 
superstructure whose moral architecture was 
destined in after years to dazzle, astonish, and 



I20 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

bless mankind. His insatiable thirst for knowl- 
edge and its wide range and desultory charac- 
ter are shown in many ways ; his superlative hon- 
esty is exhibited in the utmost sincerity, although 
his unswerving loyalty to friendship trenches 
upon its border lines. His exploits in the Black 
Hawk War and his political diplomacy attest 
that he was a natural leader of men. 

The time had come at last when he must leave 
the place where he had lived for nearly six years 
— where he had carried on two several court- 
ships, and where he had been evolved from a 
mere adventurer to a lawyer and a legislator. He 
had served two terms in the Legislature, and 
had acquired considerable distinction; he had 
seen the rise, growth, development, and decay of 
New Salem ; and he probably foresaw its speedy 
downfall, for Petersburgh had been established, 
and was growing at the expense of the earlier 
settlement; indeed, the latter was already mori- 
bund. And so, immediately after the adjourn- 
ment of the Legislature in March, 1837, Lin- 
coln sold his compass, chain, marking-pins, and 
Jacob's staff; packed his little clothing and few 
effects into his saddlebags, borrowed a horse of 
his friend Bowlin Greene, and bade a final adieu 
to the scene of so much of life, so much of sor- 
row, to him. In less than a year from that time 
New Salem ceased to exist ; its mission had been 
fulfilled ; it was the Nazareth of the nineteenth 
century. 

The Clary's Grove boys that made the welkin 
ring with sounds of "wine and wassail," Dunn 
the millwright, Onstott the cooper, Mentor Gra- 
ham the pedagogue, Grier the Justice, Waddell 
the hatter, Allen the physician, Radford, Berry, 



LINCOLN'S EARLY LOVE ROMANCE 121 

Hill, McNamar, Richardson, Lincho, Warburton, 
the Herndons, Rogers, Offutt, and Kelso, are 
gone — all dead. Bowlin Greene died in 1842. 
Lincoln was invited by the Masons, under whose 
auspices Greene was buried, to make a funeral 
address ; he manfully attempted it, and igno- 
miniously failed. His feelings overpowered him 
as the past rose in his fancy and the disinterested 
affection of his departed friend passed in re- 
view ; his sobs choked his utterance, and he with- 
drew from the mournful scene to accompany 
Mrs. Green to her desolate home. 



CHAPTER VII 

STATE LEGISLATOR 

Mr. Lincoln's political career proper may be 
said to have commenced on March 9, 1832, when 
he issued an address *To the people of Sanga- 
mon County." As he was not as well versed in 
grammar then as by experience he afterwards 
became, he procured James McNamar to correct 
its grammar — otherwise the production is en- 
tirely his own. 

The election took place about two weeks after 
his return to New Salem from the Black Hawk 
War, and he was defeated, as has been stated. 

In 1834, Lincoln decided to run again for the 
Legislature. The highly complimentary vote he 
had received before, his oratorical reputation, ac- 
quired in the prior canvass, his local popularity 
in the northern end of the county, and his credit- 
able record in the Black Hawk War, constituted 
his political stock in trade. There were no con- 
ventions then ; the field was "free for all," and, 
while there were combinations among the candi- 
dates themselves, the fact was that each candi- 
date stood or fell upon his own merits. Lincoln 
was classed as a Whig, although he held the of- 
fice of Postmaster under President Jackson and 
that of Deputy Surveyor under Calhoun, a most 
ardent Democrat. The canvass was unusually 
tame and spiritless for some reason. It resulted 
122 



STATE LEGISLATOR 123 

in the election of John Dawson, Lincohi, Wil- 
Hani Carpenter, and John T. Stuart. 

It should not be forgotten that the Legislature 
was a much more dignified, consequential, and 
important body then than it later became, and 
that it was invested with much greater political 
power and social consequence. The granting of 
corporate charters and other special legislation 
had not then been withheld from it, and it elected 
judicial and other officers. 

Vandalia, the capital, put on its best holiday 
attire when the Legislature met; and the beauty 
and fashion of the Illinois communities congre- 
gated there to a large extent. Lobbyists of the 
sleekest order hied them thither on schemes of 
plunder bent; town belles flocked in with their 
pantalettes, flounces, and ruffles, to enjoy the 
novelty and excitement; and ''Becky Sharps" re- 
paired thither with matrimonial schemes. 

The Legislature was the culminating point of 
all effort and all diversion ; the interest in the ses- 
sions was so great and abiding as to endure with- 
out diminution throughout the whole session. 
The brilliant modes of the elite of Kentucky so- 
ciety were initiated, and young lady graduates 
from the Kentucky seminaries were ''introduced" 
into Illinois society here. Local statesmen af- 
fected the lofty airs of Kentucky politics, and 
Vandalia, during a legislative session, was a re- 
flex of Frankfort during a similar period. The 
Yankees had made no perceptible impression as 
yet; Chicago was in mihihus — even Cook County 
had no existence. 

The Legislature met on the first day of Decem- 
ber, 1834. James Semple, afterwards United 
States Senator, was elected Speaker. Lincoln's 



124 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

first political act was to vote for the losing com- 
petitor, Charles Dunn. Transportation was the 
great subject of political discussion at the time. 
The Acting-Governor, in his message, said : 

Of the different modes proposed of effecting this com- 
munication [intercommunication] the general sentiment 
of the community as well as the report of an able 
engineer and the experience of other States seems to be 
in favor of a railroad. . . A railroad commencing at 
the intersecting point of the Indiana Canal on the 
Illinois River, and terminating at an eligible situation 
on the western extremity of the State, would pervade 
a country of great fertility and unequalled adaptation 
to its [the railroad's] construction. 

The Governor-elect Duncan, who was inau- 
gurated soon thereafter, took a different view. 
In his inaugural address he said : 

Of the different plans proposed [for intercommunica- 
tion] I find that the Board of Canal Commissioners and 
my worthy predecessors have recommended a railroad, 
in which I regret that I am compelled to differ with 
them in opinion. In my judgment, experience has 
shown canals to be much more useful, and generally 
cheaper of construction than railroads. 

This was the dawn of the era of premature 
internal improvements which brought fruits 
meet for repentance then, and whose glorious 
fulfilment was postponed for two decades. The 
political preponderance in the Legislature was 
against Lincoln's party, yet, somehow, he was 
placed second on the important standing commit- 
tee on public accounts and expenditures, — quite 
an honor, since, in those days, there were not 
nearly so many standing committees as now. On 
the fifth day of the session, he performed his 
first legislative work, by giving notice that on a 



STATE LEGISLATOR 125 

subsequent day he would ask leave to introduce 
a bill to limit the jurisdiction of justices of the 
peace ; and later, he offered this bill. Soon there- 
after he gave notice that he would present a bill 
'*to authorize Samuel Musick to build a toll- 
bridge across Salt Creek." What became of his 
first bill seems to be unknown, but it never be- 
came a law; contrariwise, a law was passed at 
that session to enlarge (rather than limit) the 
powers of a justice of the peace, so his first at- 
tempt at practical legislation proved to be a fail- 
ure. His second bill, being rather in the nature 
of a private act, was more successful, for it ma- 
tured into a law ; and ''Musick's bridge" was long 
one of the institutions of Illinois. 

Lincoln generally voted with his party, but his 
early independence appears in his being one of 
three to resist the small petit larceny of hiring a 
suitable place for the use of the Committee on 
Revision. An election for United States Senator 
to succeed John M. Robinson resulted in his re- 
election, Lincoln voting for Richard M. Young; 
and five judges were elected by the Legislature, 
viz. : Stephen T. Logan, Sidney Breese, Henry 
Eddy, Justin Harlan, and Thomas Ford. 

At the election for State's Attorney, Stephen 
A. Douglas made his first appearance in politics, 
coming from Jacksonville, where he was tem- 
porarily domiciled, to Vandalia, to press his 
claims for that position in the First Circuit 
against John J. Hardin, an eminent lawyer, who 
was thought to be sure of an election. The ap- 
pearance of Douglas, who was then five feet and 
one inch high, and weighed about one hundred 
pounds, greatly amused Lincoln. Douglas was 
active, adroit, and insinuating, then and thereaf- 



126 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

ter ; and Lincoln pronounced him to be ''the least 
man he ever saw," Httle dreaming of the time 
to come, when this same dwarf was to bear 
him on his shoulders to the Executive Mansion 
of the nation. To the surprise of all, the then 
pigmy Douglas was elected over the then giant 
Hardin by 38 against 34 votes, and this was the 
commencement of an illustrious though clouded 
political career. It is singular that in the com- 
petition for this office for the Qiiincy district, 
Lincoln supported Richardson, a Democrat, 
against Browning, a Whig, the former after- 
wards becoming a chief ally of Douglas and 
enemy of Lincoln, and the latter one of Lincoln's 
greatest political friends. 

Lincoln's name is not very conspicuous in the 
proceedings of this session, which adjourned on 
February 13, 1835, after lasting two and a half 
months; but his career was satisfactory alike 
to his colleagues and constituents. In the suc- 
ceeding year he again became a candidate, and 
constructed the political platform upon which he 
proposed to stand. 

There were seven members to elect to the 
Lower House and two to the Senate. While no 
one was debarred from becoming a candidate, yet 
there was a sort of tacit understanding that each 
section should be considered in the list, and that 
the support of the candidates of each party should 
be homogeneous and compact. This canvass was 
as exciting as the other had been tame ; being a 
Presidential year, the spirit of Jackson ani- 
mated it. Then there was a sentiment that the 
capital was too far south, and that it should be re- 
moved; and as Springfield was one of the com- 
peting places, it was discerned that a wealth of 



STATE LEGISLATOR 127 

political glory awaited the delegates, if they could 
succeed in scooping the capital into the Sanga- 
mon net. 

A stirring and vigorous campaign followed ; 
not only did political spirit run high, but muscu- 
lar force was brought into requisition. It was 
an age of rudeness. Fights were an inevitable 
and ordinary incident of a political canvass in 
the Jacksonian era ; insults were often given, and 
usually resented. During the canvass, Colonel 
Robert Allen, a Democrat, perpetrated some 
petty slander about Lincoln and Ninian W. Ed- 
wards, to which Lincoln made a bold reply, in 
which he said : ''If I have done anything, either 
by design or misadventure, which if known 
would subject me to a forfeiture of that confi- 
dence [placed in me by my constituents], he that 
knows of that thing and conceals it is a traitor to 
his country's interest." 

In addition to the usual speeches, the several 
candidates indulged in joint debates, in which 
several would join. Not infrequently bad blood 
would be engendered. Robert L. Wilson, one of 
the candidates (whom, with Ninian W. Edwards 
and myself, Lincoln appointed Paymasters in the 
Army), told me many incidents of this celebrated 
campaign. Among other things, he said that 
Lincoln was by common consent looked up to and 
relied on as the leading Whig exponent; that he 
was the best versed and most captivating and 
trenchant speaker on their side ; that he preserved 
his temper nearly always, and when extremely 
provoked, he did not respond with the illogical 
proposal to fight about it, but used the weapons 
of sarcasm and ridicule, and always prevailed. 
Ninian W. Edwards and Lincoln seemed to hunt 



128 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

in couples, although the former was a scion of 
wealth and aristocracy, while the latter was of 
the poorest of his class. When Lincoln would 
combat his friend's ridicule with its kind, and 
give ''railing for railing," Edwards would get 
mad, and propose to fight it out then and there. 

George Forquer was a lawyer of wealth and 
ability, who had been a Whig, but had turned 
his coat and received the appointment of Reg- 
ister of the Land Office. He had recently erected 
a new house and protected it with a lightning 
rod. This rod was then a new device, and being 
the first one that Lincoln had seen, engrossed his 
attention. 

Forquer attended a meeting at which Lincoln 
spoke, and, thinking to ingratiate himself with 
his new allies, jumped up and asked to be heard. 
This a crowd in those days was always ready to 
accord, and he replied in a very supercilious and 
insulting vein, whose haughty prelude was that 
''this young man [alluding to Lincoln] would 
have to be taken down." 

Lincoln was thoroughly roused by the insolent 
and domineering style employed. The minute 
Forquer had concluded, he arose, animated with 
an excitement unusual to him, and replied in a 
strain that surpassed all his previous oratorical 
efforts. After effectually replying to all of 
argument advanced, he concluded with this fla- 
gellation of the intruder : "This anomalous For- 
quer, if he has taken me down, as he calls it, I 
reckon you know it, and if he is satisfied, I am. 
He seems to be thoroughly up to political tricks 
— something I am not familiar with, and I never 
intend to be. If I can't get office honestly, I am 
content to live as I am, and I hope I never may 



STATE LEGISLATOR 129 

be so thoroughly steeped in poHtical trickery as 
to change my poHtical coat for a big office, and 
then feel so guilty about it as to run up a light- 
ning rod to protect my house from the venge- 
ance of an offended God." 

In no element of political controversy did Lin- 
coln fail during this canvass. He was, as there- 
after, clear and skilful in statement and logical 
in discussion; he generally preserved his equa- 
nimity and good humor, and discomfited his 
enemies, but when it was apparent that forbear- 
ance had ceased to be a virtue, Lincoln made 
points and gained friends by the force, spirit, and 
defiance of his replies. In his first and second 
canvass he was bashful and timid, and confined 
himself to the strictly rural districts ; this time 
he put away his maiden reserve, and spoke as un- 
restrainedly at Springfield as at New Salem. 
He gained the approval and applause of his 
friends and the respect and fear of his enemies, 
and became, by that very canvass, a leader of 
his party in Sangamon County, which distinction 
he never lost. 

The results of this noted canvass were very 
great, and of prime importance to Sangamon 
County. Whereas, it had theretofore leaned 
strongly to the Democracy, it now gravitated 
towards the Whigs, who never thereafter lost 
their prestige. The entire Whig ticket was 
elected, Lincoln receiving the largest vote, and 
the Whig party, which had been below par there- 
tofore, was on the mountain heights of rejoicing 
then and thereafter in that county. 

This celebrated Legislature assembled at Van- 
dalia on the fifth day of December, 1836. Among 
its members were Stephen A. Douglas and John 



I30 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

J. Hardin from the same county — one a leading" 
Democrat, and the other a leading Whig — Gen- 
eral John A. McClernand, Augustus C. French 
(afterwards Governor), and Usher F. Linder, 
then the greatest orator in the State. 

The delegation from Sangamon first engaged 
the attention of the Legklature on account of 
their size, their average height being over six 
feet, and their average v^eight being over two 
hundred pounds. They received the appellation 
of the Long Nine from their size and num.ber. 
Their political force was soon felt to be as strong 
and impressive as their physical force, for the 
people of Sangamon had been generous in the 
conferring of political power, and their reputa- 
tions were pledges not to be disobedient to the 
trust so confided to them. 

A. G. Herndon, the father of William H. 
Herndon, the future law partner of Lincoln, and 
Job Fletcher were the Senators ; and Lincoln, 
Ninian W. Edwards, John Dawson, Andrew Mc- 
Cormick, Dan Stone, William F. Elkin, and 
Robert L. Wilson were the members of the 
House. Lincoln was made a member of the im- 
portant Committee on Finance ; and both he and 
Douglas were on the Committee on the Peniten- 
tiary. 

Douglas led off the session by offering a sweep- 
ing resolution in favor of a broad and catholic 
system of internal improvements, which was 
adopted, inasmuch as the demand therefor was 
as great at the hands of the Whigs as of the 
Democrats. 

At the election for United States Senator, 
which was had at that session, Lincoln aban- 
doned Richard M. Young, whom he had voted 



STATE LEGISLATOR 131 

for before (and who was elected this time), and 
voted with a few others for Archibald Williams, 
the same whom he appointed District Judge of 
Kansas as his first appointment after that of his 
Cabinet in 1861. 

The most important measure to the Sangamon 
delegation was the removal of the capital. There 
were several competitors for it, of which Spring- 
field was really one of the least meritorious. 
Peoria, Jacksonville, and Alton were places of 
sufficient consequence properly to aspire to this 
great honor, Decatur and Springfield, the other 
two aspirants, had no merit save that of central- 
ity ; they were inconsequential villages, approach- 
able during the legislative season by roads 
almost impassable by reason of mud. The geo- 
graphical centre of the State, called Illiopolis, a 
place between Springfield and Decatur, was a 
competitor.* On account of its consequence and 
accessibility, Peoria should have been selected. 
In this contest, Lincoln was the leader and ad- 
vocate, and the Long Nine surrendered the 
scheme to his management, almost entirely. 
Their power and efficiency of management soon 
drew all attention, and concentrated all the oppo- 
sition against them; it was the Held against 
Springfield. Wilson and Henry L. Webb have 
narrated to me many incidents of that apparently 
hopeless and unequal struggle. Upon several oc- 
casions their opponents deemed that they had cir- 
cumvented the movement, and incautious ones 
crozvcd lustily over the supposed defeat and dis- 

* Illiopolis was in the extreme eastern part of San- 
gamon County, but considerably nearer to Decatur than 
to Springfield. It had no buildings then. It was only a 
geographical point on the map. 



132 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

comfiture of Lincoln and his colleagues. The 
pessimists of the Sangamon delegation supposed 
that the measure was lost, but Lincoln was te- 
nacious and resolute. He would make a flank 
and unexpected movement which would revive 
their chances. The final result was that, under 
his adroit leadership, the bill was carried, al- 
though the only political strength in its favor at 
the start was seven votes in one house and two 
in the other, with no natural allies, and several 
delegations of active enemies. This was felt to 
be one of the greatest of political triumphs, and 
its credit was freely ascribed to Lincoln. Wil- 
son, one of the delegates, assured me that had 
Lincoln not been there, it would have failed. In 
one sense, it may be said to have been a triumph 
over his later adversary on a larger field, Doug- 
las, for Douglas's town, Jacksonville, was one of 
the leading competitors. 

The most important general matter which en- 
grossed the attention of the Legislature was a 
broad and extended system of internal improve- 
ments, and in this, Lincoln was as enthusiastic 
as in the removal of the capital. The railroad 
had become an institution in New England, and 
it was even then prefigured as the great high- 
way of intercommunication; the canal had been, 
and then was, the Appian Way of commerce, but 
its construction was limited to level plains, and 
hampered by sundry other conditions which 
barred it out as the common carrier of civ- 
ilization. 

The magnificent system of internal improve- 
ments which this Legislature evolved from the 
nebulce of desire and necessity, would have been 
all right if the State could have afforded it, or 



STATE LEGISLATOR T-Z2> 

if the hoped-for development had been a well- 
founded pledge and promise of enough taxes to 
pay the interest on bonds promptly and surely; 
but, unfortunately, no such conditions existed, 
and this really able Legislature was in the condi- 
tion of a visionary but hopeful man, entering 
into enlarged business enterprises, with roseate 
hopes and brilliant anticipations for his sole cap- 
ital. However, then as always in a farming 
community, the ordinary tax-list was the great- 
est burden to be borne, and to have carried into 
effect the grand schemes which were here pro- 
posed by law and on paper, would have bank- 
rupted nine men out of ten in the whole State, 
so the inevitable and necessary result was that, 
after expending millions, the whole scheme was 
hopelessly abandoned, with very little substantial 
benefit. In point of fact, I happen to remember 
that as late as 1884, a railway was built in the 
southern part of the State partly upon a grade 
made at the expense of the State nearly a half 
century before. That no voice should have been 
raised in condemnation of such extravagant leg- 
islation, whose evil effects were so palpable in a 
few years thereafter, seems now strange to us ; 
but so it was that the general acclaim of the peo- 
ple was vocal for intercommunication, and legis- 
lators could not resist it if they would. 

The soil of Illinois was of that character of 
rich loam that, while of the very best to yield 
luxurious crops, it yet was a bar to good, or even 
tolerable, roads in the fall, winter, and spring 
times of the year. In the southeastern, western, 
and southwestern parts of the States were navi- 
gable rivers. The Illinois was available as far 
as La Salle, the Wabash as far as Lafayette in 



134 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

Indiana, and Lake Michigan touched the north- 
west; there was likewise a waterway for lead 
ore in the Fevre River to the Mississippi; and 
the canal from Lafayette to Covington in In- 
diana furnished an outlet for a small scope of 
country on the eastern border; but most of the 
State was without any means of communication 
save the *'mud-wagon'' for passengers, and the 
ordinary farm team for produce. Many com- 
munities had to go a hundred miles to haul farm 
produce : corn, oats, wheat, and hay. So the ne- 
cessity for internal improvements was imperious, 
and the people, discarding those practical and 
businesslike considerations which guided them in 
ordinary business affairs, somehow deemed leg- 
islation as a magical mode of bringing things 
to pass which could not be achieved by ordinary 
business processes. They seemed to think that 
when the legislative body solemnly proclaimed 
"Be it enacted," the improvement was already 
made, and in this flimsy delusion the leg- 
islators affected to share. The Long Nine were 
instructed on the subject by their constituents; 
they were ordered to advocate a general system 
of internal improvements ; and to brace up the 
lawmakers a mass convention was held at the 
capital, which resolved that the Legislature 
should provide for a system which should be com- 
mensurate with the desires of the people. 

Every locality had its scheme. Chicago de- 
sired then, as constantly thereafter, and properly, 
a canal to connect the waters of the Lake with 
those of the Illinois River ; all possibly available 
rivers were to be improved, as "highways of com- 
merce," and in this branch of internal improve- 
ment, Lincoln was an enthusiast, for always since 



STATE LEGISLATOR I35 

his flatboat experience with Offutt, he had ar- 
dently believed even in the adaptation of the 
Sangamon to purposes of navigation as far up 
as Springfield. 

Wherever waterways were theoretically possi- 
ble, a demand arose for the necessary appropria- 
tion to make them available, and when there was 
no potentially navigable stream, railways were 
demanded ; that there was no money in the treas- 
ury, or surplus wealth in the State, or proper 
hase^ for taxation did not seem to disturb or 
check these rustic Solons in the least. They de- 
veloped and matured their schemes of traffic con- 
quest as if they had the means in hand to enforce 
their legislation, and the only attempt to provide 
the sinews of war lay in a bill which passed, with 
no considerable opposition, to provide a loan of 
twelve millions (an enormous sum for those 
days) to carry their schemes into effect. In the 
enforcement of these measures of legislation, 
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, the 
two greatest men of Illinois, worked in perfect 
amity, accord, and enthusiasm. 

It is a singular idiosyncrasy of dialectics that 
statesmen of broad gauge as well as dolts therein, 
alike consider themselves to be capable of con- 
structing correct financial theories and enforc- 
ing them in practice ; while the fact is, that the 
science of finance is single, distinct, and recon- 
dite, and its correct study and proper practice 
are inharmonious with the study of general and 
enlarged statesmanship. In proof of this adage, 
is to be noted the fact that many of our great- 
est statesmen have not exhibited sufficient ability 
to manage even their own private finances with 
success or skill, while the masters of finance are 



136 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

most generally the most narrow gauge order of 
men elsewhere. 

Daniel Webster and Henry Clay were always 
the necessary recipients of financial assistance at 
the hands of their friends ; Stephen A. Douglas 
was a bold investor and, though living in an era 
of great rises in values, was always hopelessly 
in debt; Lincoln was prudent, and yet when 
elected President at fifty-two years of age had 
but ten thousand dollars; and similar conditions 
may be attributed to many others — indeed, our 
millionaire statesmen, as a rule, have little else 
but their millions, and successes acquired by the 
momentum of piles of gold, to save them from 
utter and abject scorn. 

While Illinois Solons in 1836 and 1837 were 
voting millions for internal improvements every 
year, thousands of farms were being sold and 
forfeited for delinquent taxes. Finally, retribu- 
tion came ; and the whole airy fabric collapsed 
and brought immediate, though reparable, dis- 
aster, and came near causing repudiation, which 
would have been an irreparable calamity. But 
while the measures were being matured, the 
sword of Damocles was not visible, nor yet did 
the shadow of an avenging Nemesis darken the 
legislative halls. All was bright and beautiful. 
Capitalists were rushing in with money to buy 
bonds, and immigrants were swelling the roll of 
tax-payers, and Illinois promised to supplant 
New York as the Empire State. 

Never was Lincoln more earnest, enthusiastic, 
or hopeful than in the advocacy of these meas- 
ures ; as he had never seen more than a hundred 
dollars or so in one lot, and had no financial 
negotiation of greater magnitude than his part- 



STATE LEGISLATOR i37 

nership transaction with Berry, he knew compar- 
atively nothing of finance. While he could for- 
mulate schemes for expending the public money, 
he had no idea of the conservative qualities 
needed to complete the process and secure a logi- 
cal balancing of accounts at the end. His ambi- 
tion, in view of the future of history, took a 
strange direction, and had no legitimate basis ; 
he had read of the glorious "Erie Canal" system 
and the lustre conferred upon its founder, and he 
confidentially avowed to his friend Speed his 
ambition to become the ''De Witt Clinton" of 
Illinois. Instead, he came nearer, however, to 
being its John Law ; at least the enterprises in 
which he courted distinction ended almost as dis- 
astrously as the ''Mississippi bubble." 

Lincoln was on the important Committee on 
Finance, in which were matured these magnifi- 
cent schemes of internal improvement; and both 
Lincoln and Douglas were brought, in a legisla- 
tive sense, face to face by service on the Com- 
mittee on the Penitentiary. In pursuance of their 
official duties, it was necessary for them to visit 
the institution at Alton, then about sixty miles 
distant; and we can imagine this committee, one 
of whose members was six feet four inches in 
height and the other five feet and one inch, en 
route in the stage thither and return, entertain- 
ing each other, to while away the tedium of the 
journey. 

During the session, a motion was made to ex- 
press the thanks of the Legislature to President 
Jackson for the firm, consistent, independent, and 
able manner in which he had performed his du- 
ties, and to tender its best wishes to him on his 
retirement from office. Jesse K. Dubois moved 



138 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

to amend by inserting the prefix ''in" before con- 
sistent. This was rejected. Lincoln moved to 
divide the proposition, which was done; and he 
himself voted ''nay" to the first branch and "aye" 
to the second branch. Both branches of the mo- 
tion were carried. 

It is noticeable that an election took place at 
this session for a Judge at Chicago (I suppose of 
the Common Pleas Court), at which Thomas 
Ford was elected, and Browning and Lincoln 
were the tellers. 

The session ended on March 6, 1837, and the 
"Long Nine" mounted their horses and started 
for home, except Lincoln, who had no horse to 
mount, and hence went by means of "Shanks' 
mare," as he termed it. Being long-legged and 
an excellent walker, he was enabled to pick his 
way through comparatively dry fields and by the 
roadside, thus avoiding the mud w^hich his com- 
panions must contend with, and so he managed 
to keep up with them for the whole journey, 
which consumxcd four days. It is quite prob- 
able that, in order to have the benefit of Lin- 
coln's humor, they suited their gait to his, and it 
is manifest to such as were familiar with the 
methods of the "Wild and Woolly West" in those 
days, that the literary entertainment of the jour- 
ney was highly spiced, if not classical. The poor- 
est scintillation of wit of the journey reveals a 
border of sadness. The future Emancipator, 
thinly clad for the season, shivered as a cold 
northeaster struck him, and said : "Boys, I'm 
cold." "No wonder," was the unfeeling reply, 
animadverting on the size of his feet, "there's so 
much of you on the ground." 

However, the "Long Nine" were received with 



STATE LEGISLATOR i39 

great eclat at Springfield. The keys and freedom 
of the little mud-begirt city were accorded them, 
and free dinners galore were spread. At one of 
these the following toast was proposed to Mr. 
Lincoln : ''Abraham Lincoln : he has fulfilled the 
expectations of his friends, and disappointed the 
hopes of his enemies," and Lincoln proposed this 
toast : ''All our friends : they are too numerous 
to mention now individually, while there is no 
one of them who is not too dear to be forgotten 
or neglected." And Douglas, who was also there, 
having been appointed Register of the Land 
Oftice, offered this toast : "The last winter's legis- 
lation : rhay its results prove no less beneficial 
to the whole State than they have to our town." 

But the novelty wore off in a day or two, and 
the usual humdrum of existence prevailed. Lin- 
coln had had the lead in the honors accorded, and, 
although his name was as sonorous and more 
applauded than any, he was the sole one of the 
"Long Nine" who had no local habitation or 
home, and the necessity for achieving one pressed 
remorselessly upon him. 

Soon after leaving Springfield at this time, he 
visited Athens, where his colleague, Robert L. 
Wilson, of the "Long Nine," resided, and that 
community extended to Mr. Lincoln the compli- 
ment of a banquet, at which he was accorded the 
toast : "Abraham Lincoln : one of Nature's noble- 
men." One can scarcely credit the extreme rus- 
ticity which then prevailed. These extremely 
raw "toasts" sound very like the proceedings of 
a cross-roads debating club — in fact, Lincoln and 
his surroundings smacked of the Justice of the 
Peace order of law business, and the "log-cabin 
and hard cider" style of social life. 



I40 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

From Mr. Wilson, whom I knew intimately in 
after life, I learned much of the career of the 
great President in those early days. Wilson 
said : ''Lincoln was a natural debater ; he was 
always ready and always got right down to the 
merits of his case, without any nonsense or cir- 
cumlocution. He was quite as much at home in 
the Legislature as at New Salem ; he had a quaint 
and peculiar way, all his own, of treating a sub- 
ject, and he frequently startled us by his modes 
— but he was always right. He seemed to be a 
born politician. We followed his lead, but he 
followed nobody's lead ; he hewed the way for us 
to follow, and we gladly did so. He could grasp 
and concentrate the matters under discussion, 
and his clear statement of an intricate or ob- 
scure subject was better than an ordinary argu- 
ment. It may almost be said that he did our 
thinking for us, but he had no arrogance, noth- 
ing of the dictatorial ; it seemed the right thing 
to do as he did. He excited no envy or jealousy. 
He was felt to be so much greater than the rest 
of us that we were glad to abridge our intellectual 
labors by letting him do the general thinking 
for the crowd. He inspired absolute respect, al- 
though he was utterly careless and negligent. 
We would ride while he would walk, but we rec- 
ognized him as a master in logic ; he was poverty 
itself when I knew him, but still perfectly inde- 
pendent. He would borrow nothing and never 
ask favors. He seemed to glide along in life 
without any friction or effort." Soon after the 
termination of this session, Jackson's relentless 
war on the National Bank bore fruit, and that 
institution closed its doors, followed by a sus- 
pension of the banks in the large cities of the 



STATE LEGISLATOR 141 

Union. The danger was imminent, and the con- 
servative Governor convened the Legislature in 
special session at Vandalia, on July 10, 1837, 
when a practical message calling attention to 
the financial perils which environed the State, 
and advising the Legislature to reef sails, and 
throw out ballast, awaited them. The optimistic 
Legislature paid no heed to these monitory and 
temperate suggestions, but, on the other hand, 
with an astonishing recklessness, persisted in 
its mad schemes of inflation, and not only so, 
but added to them. 

The Sangamon delegation was strengthened 
by the addition of Edward D. Baker, afterwards 
known to a great fame as a fervent and thrill- 
ing orator; and the pyrotechnics of oratory held 
sway over prudence, and the approaching and 
inevitable pay-day. So ultimate financial ruin 
was accelerated, in which Lincoln was more en- 
thusiastic than his fellows, although at that time, 
he probably did not pay one cent of taxes, for 
he not only owned nothing, but was twelve hun- 
dred dollars, or such matter, in debt. However, 
this was one branch of Lincoln's training-school, 
by which, in process of time, he became the 
wisest of our public men. 

At the ensuing session of the Legislature, 
which convened on December 9, 1839, Lincoln 
was again a member, and so conspicuous that he 
received the votes of his Whig colleagues for 
Speaker — thirty-eight votes, to forty-three for 
his Democratic colleague. He was reappointed 
on the important Committee on Finance, and was 
likewise made a member of the Committee on 
Counties. Edward D. Baker, afterwards United 
States Senator from Oregon, and Isaac P. 



142 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

Walker, afterwards United States Senator from 
Wisconsin, were members. But little of public 
importance was done, except to bemoan the sad 
condition of the finances, and make tentative ef- 
forts to retrieve the errors and profligacy of past 
legislation. Lincoln started in the session with a 
heroic resolve to maintain the ground, but finance 
was not his forte, and he succumbed to the inev- 
itable, as the others did. Repudiation in dis- 
guise was boldly mentioned. It was not deemed 
possible that the State could pay its entire debt ; 
and discussions were entered into as to which 
parts were more, and which less, meritorious. 
Lincoln candidly admitted "his share of the re- 
sponsibility in the present crisis" — admitted that 
he was no financier, and did not have the least 
idea how the State would be extricated from its 
embarrassment. The Legislature could do noth- 
ing effective; work was suspended on the public 
improvements, and Lincoln's roseate hopes of be- 
coming the "De Witt Clinton" of Illinois faded 
away like the mists of morning. 

He returned home from this session very 
deeply chagrined at the anti-climacteric ending of 
his brilliant schemes, and had to endure the 
taunts and gibes of the Democrats, to whom his 
career had afforded so excellent an opportunity 
for the display of ridicule and envy. In order 
to restore, if possible, his lost prestige, and to re- 
trieve his political character, he offered himself 
again as a candidate, and put all the vigor he 
knew into the campaign. 

The campaign was a vituperative one. Among 
the Democratic orators was Edmund D. Taylor, 
a professional politician, having held office for 
most of his life ; in fact, both he and his brother 



STATE LEGISLATOR i43 

had a weakness for land office appointments, and 
one or the other, and sometimes both, were con- 
stantly feeding, in some way, at the pubHc crib. 
So Taylor, in one of his speeches, took occasion 
to appeal to the prejudices of the people by call- 
ing the Whigs ''English aristocrats," and speak- 
ing of them as bankers, capitalists, toadies to the 
English, etc., and to laud his party as the lover 
of the poor man, plain manners, honest work- 
men, etc. In point of fact, Taylor himself, with 
a strange inconsistency of conduct, was a con- 
summate fop. He never appeared in public with- 
out a ruffled shirt, a blue coat and brass buttons, 
and a gold-headed cane. This habit he persisted 
in to his ninetieth year, when, with his oiled and 
glossy locks and erect deportment, he would eas- 
ily pass for a youth of sixty. When Taylor had 
concluded this demagogic appeal, Lincoln caught 
the lower edge of his vest and suddenly jerked it 
open, exhibiting a huge ruffled shirt and a pon- 
derous gold watch-chain with a lot of ornamental 
appendages, which Taylor had designed to con- 
ceal for the occasion, to the dire confusion of 
Taylor and the infinite merriment of the crowd. 
Then Lincoln ''sailed into" the pretensions 
launched forth by Taylor, in this style : "And 
here's Dick Taylor charging us with aristocracy 
and gilt manners, and claiming to be an expo- 
nent of the farmers and cattle raisers ; and while 
he's doing this, he stands in a hundred-dollar 
suit of clothes in a dancing master's pomp and 
parade, with a ruffled shirt just such as his mas- 
ter. General Jackson, wears, and a gold log-chain 
around his neck to keep his watch from being 
stole by some of us, and with a big gold-headed 
cane. And while he was raised in this style, I 



144 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

was a-steering a flatboat down the river for 
eight dollars a month, with a torn shirt, one pair 
of buckskin breeches, and a warmiis as my only 
suit. The Bible says, 'By their fruits ye shall 
know them'; now I have got on my best to-day, 
and Taylor has got on his shabbiest. You can 
judge which one of us is the aristocrat by our 
appearance." 

The canvass was full of bitterness. Baker was 
once making a Whig speech in the courthouse, in 
the course of which he dealt the Democracy some 
pretty severe blows, exciting the wrath of the 
Democrats so that they cried : "Hustle him 
down !" and began to move toward him to carry 
out the threat. The room had a very low ceiling, 
and there was a hole in the floor just above the 
judge's stand (which was in the centre of the 
building) to let in light and air. Lincoln's office 
was in the second story, and he was lying down 
by this hole, to hear Baker's speech. When he 
saw this attempt to mob Baker, he at once let 
himself down through the hole, and, appearing at 
the side of Baker, shouted in a voice of authority 
that was at once respected : "Stop this. Baker has 
a right to speak as he pleases, and if you take him 
off the stand, you'll have to take me, too !" 

Baker then finished his speech just as he de- 
sired, and Lincoln went out in the street, and 
stayed with him as long as he was menaced with 
danger. 

Jesse B. Thomas, a leader of the Democracy, 
in the absence of Lincoln made a good deal of 
sport of him, which some friends of the latter 
reported in time for him to reach the meeting 
before it broke up. As soon as Thomas had 
concluded, there were vociferous shouts for Lin- 



STATE LEGISLATOR i45 

coin from all over the house. The latter was 
"on tap." Having heard of Thomas's line of 
remark, he was wrought up to his extremest ten- 
sion, and abused Thomas in a merciless way. 
He mimicked Thomas perfectly, showed off all 
his peculiarities and weaknesses, and kept the 
audience in a roar of derision at poor Thomas, 
who was in full view of the audience during the 
whole scene, and could not escape. It was a 
long time before this incident, called the "skin- 
ning of Thomas," was forgotten in Springfield ; 
but Lincoln himself, to whose nature the attack 
was entirely foreign, after it was over felt very 
sorry for it, and even went so far as to apologize 
to Thomas. 

Lincoln himself told me of an incident that 
happened at the election. Baker was born on the 
sea, when his parents were emigrating to this 
country from England, and it used to be occa- 
sionally said that he was not a qualified voter. 
So on this election day a prominent Democrat 
said to Baker, "I'm going to challenge your 
vote." This was a tender point with Baker, as 
well as a deadly insult, and he quickly said, "If 
you do, I'll lick you." Baker tendered his vote, 
which the man challenged, and Baker took the 
oath and voted. Then in quicker time than he 
could comprehend that anything had occurred, 
the man lay in the street, his face covered with 
blood, the worst whipped man Lincoln said that 
he had ever seen. 

No event prior to the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise ever happened in Illinois which cre- 
ated so much excitement as the removal of the 
State capital. The first measure was a joint res- 
olution to relocate by a joint convention of the 



146 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

two houses on a day named. That day was a 
red-letter day in the history of Vandaha, for all 
the politicians in the State were there, each one 
advocating his favorite location. There were a 
dozen competing places, six actively so, and the 
rest hoping that an emergency would arise that 
would bring one of them to the front. The lead- 
ing places were Springfield, Jacksonville, Van- 
daha, Peoria, Alton, and Illiopolis (the centre of 
the State). When the first ballot was taken, in- 
tense excitement prevailed. Lincoln's adroit tac- 
tics were felt and acknowledged throughout, and 
Springfield secured more votes than any two of 
its competitors combined on the first ballot, and 
continued to grow on every ballot, securing the 
coveted prize on the fourth. 

An appropriation of $50,000 was made toward 
providing a capital building, and Springfield was 
required to obligate itself to pay $50,000 toward 
the same object. It took herculean efiForts to 
raise this amount, and Douglas proposed a meas- 
ure to release the city from its obligation, but 
Lincoln opposed it. Said he : *'We have the ben- 
efit; let us stand to our obligation like men." 
The sum was divided into three instalments ; the 
first two were raised, but they had to borrow the 
last instalment from the State Bank. To secure 
this a joint note was made, signed by every citi- 
zen of the place. 

The first Legislature to convene in Springfield 
used temporary quarters : the Representatives sat 
in the Second Presbyterian Church on Fourth 
Street ; the Senate in the Methodist Church ; and 
the Supreme Court in the Episcopal Church. 

Of this Legislature which sat at Springfield, 
Lyman Trumbull, William H. Bissell, Thomas 



STATE LEGISLATOR i47 

Driimmond, and Ebenezer Peck — all greatly dis- 
tinguished thereafter — were members, and 
John Calhoun, of *'candle-box" notoriety after- 
wards, was Clerk. Lincoln was again the Whig 
candidate for Speaker, receiving thirty-six votes, 
but was defeated by W.L.D.Ewing,who received 
forty-six votes. On account of the financial dis- 
tress and incidents growing out of the same, the 
Governor convened the Legislature two weeks 
earHer than its regular session. The banks all 
over the nation had been forced by the panic of 
1837 to suspend specie payments, and at the pre- 
vious session, the Legislature of Illinois had au- 
thorized its State Bank to suspend specie pay- 
ments till the end of the next General Assembly. 
The Democratic party got into a quarrel with 
the Bank, and, in consequence, conceived a plan 
to force it to resume, by adjourning siiie die at 
the end of the first fortnight of the regular ses- 
sion, which would have been ruinous, for this 
reason, that the banks of all other States being 
suspended, if the State Bank of this one State 
was alone compelled to redeem its bills, an at- 
tempt would be made to run every one of them 
home at once, which, of course, would very soon 
exhaust their small stock of specie. The Whigs, 
having heard of this scheme on the morning of 
the day it was to be attempted, resolved to coun- 
teract it in this way: it needed several of the 
Whig members to constitute a quorum for the 
transaction of business, but on an attempt to 
take a vote, a quorum would be assumed as pres- 
ent, if unchallenged, and so all Whig members 
stayed out of the chamber, except Lincoln and 
Joseph Gillespie, who remained to call for the 
ayes and noes when an attempt should be made 



148 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

to adjourn sine die. The Democrats, seeing the 
ruse, made a call of the house, and sent the 
Sergeant-at-Arms out to hunt up the absentees. 
Lincoln and Gillespie, seeing Whigs brought in, 
agreed with two of them that they should move 
for the ayes and noes, and then attempted to 
withdraw ; but finding the doors locked by order 
of the Speaker, they raised a window, and, joined 
by Asahel Gridley of Bloomington, jumped out 
and secreted themselves. Although judged by 
the canons of political morality this was a justifi- 
able act, Lincoln ever thereafter regretted 
it, and would always have some little inapposite 
story to narrate whenever the story came up, in 
order to divert the subject. A most rancorous 
partisan spirit prevailed throughout the entire 
session, and the Democrats, having the power, 
carried measures with a high hand, one of their 
schemes being a total overthrow of the judicial 
system of the State, and the substitution therefor 
of a strictly partisan bench, for partisan objects. 
The law, as it then stood, provided that all 
white male inhabitants should vote, etc. This, 
the Democrats contended, included aliens, but 
the Galena judge, on a test case, decided that 
it did not include aliens. Whereupon Douglas 
drafted a bill vacating the seats of the nine cir- 
cuit judges, and providing for the appointment, 
by the Legislature, of nine additional Supreme 
Judges, who also should perform ''Circuit" duty. 
Of course, the Legislature appointed Democrats, 
who decided the law as the party wished ; and 
thus, by one of the most high-handed outrages 
upon the judiciary, and usurpations of political 
and constitutional power, the law was subverted, 
the independence of the judicial power invaded, 



STATE LEGISLATOR i49 

and a general degradation of the law and public 
morality enforced. Douglas, the author of the 
law, became one of the new judges, but the 
odious system did not last long. Public opinion 
everywhere condemned it, and the new consti- 
tution made it impossible for the Legislature 
thereafter to punish the judiciary for trying to 
administer the law honestly. This example 
indicates the rabid and vicious character of 
local politics in Illinois in the days of Lincoln's 
novitiate in that field where he ^yas destined to 
garner such colossal fame in the days to come. 
Lincoln subsequently, in the debates with Doug- 
las, made good use of this episode in his oppo- 
nent's early career, showing that the advocate of 
the Dred Scott decision had not always upheld 
the sanctity of the judiciary. 

Mr, Lincoln was absent for a considerable part 
of the regular session, on account of nervous 
irritation and general ill-health. He visited his 
friend Joshua F. Speed, who had removed to 
the Speed plantation, near Louisville. While 
there, he was wont to visit James Speed's law 
office in Louisville and amuse himself with the 
law library, neither one then thinking that one 
of them would become President of the United 
States, and the other his Cabinet law adviser. 

This was Lincoln's last legislative service. 
During its existence he gained much experience, 
became acquainted with the genius of Illinois 
laws and polities, and the laws themselves, and 
the politicians, and was enabled to gauge, to some 
extent, his own merits and abilities as a politi- 
cian and public man. 

Mr. Lincoln's statesmanship was in a chrysalis 
state. His evolution from a backwoods youth to 



ISO LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

a man of affairs was not yet complete. His 
training for his true mission in life had just be- 
gun. A Lincoln was not made in a day. 

In 1854, his political friends brought him and 
Judge Logan out as candidates for the Legisla- 
ture, and although both Lincoln and his wife 
tried to prohibit it, yet both he and Logan were 
kept in the field and both were elected. Lincoln 
was a candidate for the United States Senate, 
and declined the position. The Democrats took 
advantage of the opportunity, and elected one of 
their number to fill the vacancy. Had Lincoln 
remained in the position, the result of the Sena- 
torial election might have been otherwise. 

William Jayne, a brother-in-law of Senator 
Trumbull, was one of the most active and per- 
sistent of the Springfield local politicians. He 
attended all conventions, great and small, and 
was a man of inflexible integrity to his friends 
and principles. Jayne went to Lincoln to get his 
consent to run, and thus reports the occurrence : 
'T went to see him in order to get his consent to 
run. This was at his home. He was then the 
saddest man I ever saw — the gloomiest. He 
walked up and down the floor almost crying, and 
to all my persuasions to let his name stand in the 
paper, he said : 'No, I can't ; you don't know all. 
I say you don't begin to know one-half, and that's 
enough.' I did go, however, and have his name 
reinstated." 

It is scarcely needless to say that it was Mrs. 
Lincoln's opposition Avhich so much disturbed 
him. She insisted in her imperious way that he 
must now go to the United States Senate, and 
that it was a degradation to run him for the 
Legislature 



CHAPTER VIII 

CONGRESSMAN 

Mr. Lincoln's first law partner, John T. 
Stuart, ran and was defeated for the Twenty- 
fifth Congress, which sat in December, 1837, but 
he w^as successful for the Twenty-sixth and 
Twenty-seventh Congresses. For the next Con- 
gress in course, the Twenty-eighth, which was 
to meet on December 4, 1843, the city of Spring- 
field presented three several Whig competitors 
for the nomination, viz. : Judge Logan, E. D. 
Baker, and Mr. Lincoln. Logan withdrew, leav- 
ing the field to Baker and Lincoln. Baker se- 
cured the delegation, one of whom was Lincoln, 
who humorously wrote that he felt, in attending 
the convention, like attending as the "best man" 
at a successful rival's wedding. However, Baker 
lost the nomination, it going to John J. Hardin 
of Jacksonville, who was elected. At the next 
convention, held in 1844, Baker was nominated 
and thereafter elected. He resigned on Decem- 
ber 30, 1846, in order to return to the Mexican 
War, he having participated in it the previous 
summer, and one John Henry was elected to fill 
the vacancy of nearly a month. 

Lincoln and Logan were both candidates for 
the succession, but the latter withdrew, in conse- 
quence, probably, of an agreement that he should 
run next time. He presented Lincoln's name to 

151 



152 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

the convention, which met at Petersburgh in 
May, 1846, and the latter was unanimously 
nominated. 

The Democrats nominated Rev. Peter Cart- 
wright, the most eminent and widely known 
Methodist preacher in the State. Cartwright 
was an untiring worker and personally very pop- 
ular, owing to his force of character. The can- 
vass on both sides was made with great vigor and 
spirit, not to say acrimony. Cartwright appealed 
to the prejudices of the religious community 
against Lincoln, branding him as an infidel, 
which was a more terrible accusation then than 
now. That the reverend gentleman took no pride 
in this canvass is patent in this, that in an auto- 
biography published by him afterwards the cir- 
cumstance is not alluded to at all. Lincoln was 
elected by an unprecedented majority — 1,511 
votes — the usual majority in the district being 
about 500. This was a great honor, in view of 
the kind of canvass which was made against him. 

The principal subject for political considera- 
tion was the Mexican War, which was then wag- 
ing. In Illinois the war was popular, even 
among the Whigs. Hardin and Baker, both 
Whigs, fought in it, and Hardin was killed at 
Buena Vista. Lincoln partook of the spirit of 
the time, and made a fervent war speech to his 
constituents on May 29, 1847. I" December, 
1847, h^ appeared in Congress, the only Whig 
from Illinois ; his Democratic colleagues from 
Illinois being : Robert Smith, from Alton ; John 
A. McClernand, from Shawneetown ; Orlando B. 
Ficklin, from Charleston ; William A. Richard- 
son, from Rushville; Thomas J. Turner, from 
Freeport; and John Wentworth, from Chicago. 



CONGRESSMAN i53 

This was a very talented and a very eventful 
Congress. Questions relating to the accessions 
and government of new territory were being con- 
sidered. In the Senate were Bell, Calhoun, Cor- 
win, Crittenden, Davis, Dayton, Dickinson, Dix, 
Douglas, Hale, Hunter, and Webster ; and in the 
House, Ashmore, Andrew Johnson, Toombs, 
Giddings, Wilmot, Collam.er, Botts, Rhett, Ste- 
phens, and Clingman. Robert C. Winthrop of 
Massachusetts was Speaker. 

On December 20, 1847, the following resolu- 
tions came up for action on a motion to lay on 
the table, and Lincoln voted with his party 
against the motion, and in favor of the measure : 

Resolved, That if in the judgment of Congress it be 
necessary to improve the navigation of a river to ex- 
pedite and render secure the movements of our Army, 
and save from delay and loss, our arms and munitions 
of war, that Congress has the power to improve such 
river. 

Resolved, That if it be necessary for the preservation 
of the lives of our seamen, repairs, safety, or main- 
tenance of our vessels of war, to improve a harbor 
or inlet, either on our Atlantic or lake coast. Congress 
has the power to make such improvement. 

On December 21, 1847, Joshua A. Giddings 
presented a petition from certain citizens of 
Washington City for the repeal of the slave-trade 
in the District of Columbia (there then being a 
slave-market within earshot of the Capitol). Mr. 
Giddings attempted to have it referred to the 
Judiciary Committee, with instructions to inquire 
into the constitutionality of all laws by which 
slaves are held as property in the District of Co- 
lumbia. The pro-slavery hordes tried to lay the 
measure on the table, but failed. Mr. Lincoln 
voted with Giddings not to lay on the table. 



154 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

On December 22, Wentworth from Chicago 
moved as follows : 

Resolved, That the General Government has the 
power to construct such harbors and improve such 
rivers as are necessary and proper for the protection of 
our navy and commerce, and also for the defences of 
our country. 

It passed, after an animated debate, by 138 to 
54, Mr. Lincoln voting aye. 

On December 22, Mr. Lincoln attempted a po- 
litical coup de main, if not, indeed, a coup d'etat, 
which he took great pride in at the time, but 
which proved to be a coup de grace to his imme- 
diate political aspirations. He made a motion 
which was ever afterward called in derision the 
*'spot" resolutions, and brought upon their au- 
thor unmerited obloquy. The reception and fate 
of this proposed measure show the political folly 
of attempting to impede or cavil at a national 
war, whether just or unjust. 

In point of fact, these resolutions were in the 
highest degree proper. It was the administra- 
tion which inaugurated the war, and yet Presi- 
dent Polk, at the behest of the slavocracy, took 
especial pains to set forth, in all ways, and when- 
ever he could, that the Mexicans had done so. 
The Whig party in Congress denounced this lie, 
as was proper, but Mr. Lincoln seriously crippled 
his political career by being too fresh, and fur- 
nishing a basis for slander. Thomas Corwin dug 
his political grave even deeper by exclaiming in 
the Senate : "Were I a Mexican, as I am an 
American, I would say to the invader: We will 
welcome you with bloody hands to hospitable 
graves." 

Always thereafter the Democratic press and 



CONGRESSMAN I55 

orators charged Mr. Lincoln with voting against 
suppHes for the Mexican War, and in the joint 
debate, Douglas charged that Lincoln took the 
side of the enemy against his own country. 

As late as June, 1858, the Chicago Times 
charged Lincoln with voting against the supplies 
to our soldiers in the Mexican War, the *'spot res- 
olutions" being its only basis. I sent the paper to 
Mr. Lincoln and he repHed : "Give yourself no 
uneasiness about my having voted against the 
supplies, unless you are without faith that a lie 
can be successfully contradicted." He further 
stated that he was then considering as to the 
best way to contradict it, but he deemed it best 
to do nothing about it. 

On the 17th of February, 1848, the question 
of supplies for the army in Mexico came to a 
test vote on a Loan Bill to raise $16,000,000 to 
pay government debts, chiefly incurred in carry- 
ing on the Mexican War. Recollect that the 
House of Representatives was a Whig one with 
a Whig Speaker, yet this measure passed by a 
vote of 192 to 14, Mr. Lincoln voting with the 
majority; thus giving the direct lie to the brood 
of maligners and liars who pursued him with 
their venom, constantly thereafter. 

On December 28, 1847, sundry citizens of In- 
diana sent in a petition for the abolition of sla- 
very in the District of Columbia, and it was laid 
on the table, although Mr. Lincoln voted against 
thus summarily disposing of it. 

And on the 30th of December, a memorial 
against the slave-trade in the District was pre- 
sented, and Lincoln sustained its respectful con- 
sideration by his vote. 

On January 17, 1848, Giddings introduced a 



156 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

resolution reporting- alleged outrages against a 
colored man in Washington, and asking for a 
special committee to determine on the expediency 
of prohibiting the slave-trade in the district. 
Many test votes were taken on the resolution, 
and Lincoln sustained Giddings each time. 

On February 28 a resolution was offered in 
the House, which read thus : 

Whereas^ in the settlement of the difficulties prevail- 
ing between this country and Mexico, territory may be 
acquired in which slavery does not exist ; and whereas, 
Congress, in the organization of a territorial govern- 
ment, at an early period of cur political history estab- 
lished a principle worthy of imitation in all future time, 
forbidding the existence of slavery in free territory: 

Therefore, be it Resolved, That in any territory which 
may be acquired from Mexico, on which shall be estab- 
lished territorial governments, slavery or involuntary 
servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the 
party shall have been duly convicted, should be forever 
prohibited, and that, in any act or resolution establish- 
ing such government, a fundamental provision ought to 
be inserted to that effect. 

It was laid on the table by 105 to 92. Mr. 
Lincoln voting with the mover, and Giddings in 
the negative. 

On April 3, and also on the i8th, Mr. Lincoln 
moved to suspend the Rules, so as to take up 
for action the 'Ten Regiment" bill. 

On June 19, 1848, Stewart of Pennsylvania 
offered a resolution favoring a protective tariff, 
as follows : 

Resolved, That the Committee of Ways and Means be 
instructed to enquire into the expediency of reporting a 
bill increasing the duties on foreign luxuries of all 
kinds and on such foreign manufactures as are now 
coming into ruinous competition with American labor. 

Mr. Lincoln voted in favor of the resolution. 



CONGRESSMAN i57 

An important bill came down from the Senate 
on 28th of July to establish territorial govern- 
ments for the territories of California, Oregon, 
and New Mexico. It authorized slavery in Cali- 
fornia and New Mexico, and was very obnoxious 
to the Whigs, even to those from the South. This 
measure was of especial importance, as show- 
ing the change of base executed by Mr. Web- 
ster between that day and March 7, 1850, for in 
the speech of the latter date, he took grounds 
entirely antagonistic to those exhibited by him 
on this occasion. He closed his speech with 
these words : 

''Under no circumstances would I consent to the 
further extension of the area of slavery in the United 
States, or to the further increase of slave representa- 
tion in the House of Representatives." 

Thomas Corwin likewise made a forcible 
speech in opposition, ending as follows : 

"I must consider it bad policy to plant slavery in any 
soil where I do not find it already growing. I look 
upon it as an exotic that blights with its shade the soil 
in which you plant it, and therefore, as I am satisfied 
of our constitutional power to prohibit it, so I am 
equally certain it is our duty to do so." 

Stephens of Georgia, afterwards Vice- 
President of the Confederacy, moved to lay the 
bill on the table, and voted "aye." Lincoln did 
the same. 

On August 2, the House bill for organizing 
the Territory of Oregon came up, and a motion 
was made to repeal the Ordinance of 1787 pro- 
hibiting slavery there. Mr. Lincoln voted against 
it. From first to last he was consistently on the 
side of freedom in the Territories. 



158 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

During this session, Mr. Lincoln showed his 
sterHng quaHties as a debater in the dehvery of 
several speeches, all emphasized by clearness of 
statement and vigor of reasoning, characteristic 
of him during the slavery discussions. On Jan- 
uary 12, 1848, he made a notable speech on the 
War with Mexico. 

I do not believe that anybody could have 
crowded more matter in the same amount of 
space. 

On June 20, he spoke on the subject of Internal 
Improvements. 

On the 27th of July, he made a speech in deri- 
sion of General Cass's claim to be a military hero, 
which, though sadly lacking in dignity, enter- 
tained the House and the nation, and formed an 
admirable campaign document. 

At the second, or short, session, on December 
12, 1848, the following resolution was submitted: 

Resolved, That the Committee of Ways and Means 
be instructed to inquire into the expediency of reporting 
a Tariff Bill based upon the principles of the Tariff of 
1842. 

And Mr. Lincoln voted for it. 

As showing Mr. Lincoln's love of perfect jus- 
tice is this incident : Palfrey of Massachusetts 
proposed a bill to abolish slavery in the District 
of Columbia without any compensation to own- 
ers, and Mr. Lincoln voted No, because no pro- 
vision for compensation was included. On the 
same day, however, a resolution was offered, as 
follows : 

Resolved, That the Committee on Territories be in- 
structed to report to this House with as little delay as 
practicable, a bill or bills providing a territorial gov- 
ernment for each of the territories of New Mexico and 
California, and excluding slavery therefrom. 



CONGRESSMAN i59 

Mr. Lincoln supported this measure heartily. 
On the 2 1st of December, Mr. Gott proposed 
the following resolution : 

Whereas, the traffic now prosecuted In this metrop- 
olis of the Republic in human beings as chattels is con- 
trary to natural justice and the fundamental principles 
of our political system, and is notoriously a reproach to 
our country throughout Christendom, and a serious 
hindrance to the progress of republican liberty among 
the nations of the earth : 

Therefore, be it Resolved, That the Committee for 
the District of Columbia be instructed to report a bill 
as soon as practicable prohibiting the slave trade in said 
district. 

Because Lincoln did not like the meagre pro- 
visions of the bill, he voted to lay it on the table ; 
and that having failed, on the passage of the 
resolution Mr. Lincoln voted "nay." 

On December 21, the following resolution was 
proposed in the House : 

Resolved, That the present traffic in the public lands 
should cease, and that they should be disposed of to 
occupants and cultivators on proper conditions, at such 
a price as will nearly indemnify the cost of their pur- 
chase, management and sale. 

This measure received Lincoln's support. 

The "Gott resolution," heretofore mentioned, 
to prohibit the slave-trade in the District of Co- 
lumbia having again come before the House on 
a reconsideration, Mr. Lincoln oflfered an elabo- 
rate measure as a substitute. 

On January 31, a bill was reported from the 
District of Columbia to prohibit the bringing of 
slaves into the District, either as merchandise or 
for hire. Mr. Lincoln sustained it 

On February 21, Mr, Lincoln sustained a bill 



i6o LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

to abolish the franking privilege. His congres- 
sional career came to an end on March 4 ensuing. 

While Mr. Lincoln's congressional career gave 
no sign of the tremendous possibilities after- 
guards developed, it nevertheless, tested by prin- 
ciple, is a very creditable career, although it was 
deficient in matter of policy. 

It was not Mr. Lincoln's style, however, to 
let policy govern principle or stand in its way. 
He knew that the Mexican War was founded on 
a lie; and he felt that it was his duty to con- 
tribute to the unmasking of the fallacies and 
deceit of an administration given over completely 
to the behests of the slave power. 

On the subject of slavery, he was consistent 
then as always. He believed that Congress had 
the right to abolish slavery in the District of Co- 
lumbia, and he so stated as early as 1837, in his 
protest in the Illinois Legislature; but he also 
believed that the rights of the white people of 
the District, and of the slave-owners, should be 
respected. 

He believed in the perfect right of Congress to 
prohibit slavery in the Territories, and that no 
right at all existed in Congress to interfere with 
it in the slave States; and to the observance of 
these principles he was, throughout, consistent. 

The *'spot" resolutions, however, formed a 
basis for misrepresentation and vilification, which 
rendered Mr. Lincoln's career unsavory on the 
whole, ruled him out of politics for the time 
being, and turned his district over to the em- 
braces of the enemy. In point of fact, it has 
always had a Democratic representation since, al- 
though it must be said that a redistricting took 
place in 185 1, by a Democratic Legislature. 



CHAPTER IX 

CITIZEN AND NEIGHBOR 

In Lincoln's day, the seminal principle of the 
haut ton of his home town was derived from 
the Kentucky "bluegrass" region. Two sons of 
Governor Edwards, who had been Chief Justice 
of Kentucky, Territorial Governor of Illinois, 
and Minister to Mexico* three daughters and a 
nephew of Hon. Robert T. Todd, who had been 
a leader of the political and social aristocracy of 
Kentucky; the Mathers, Ridgeleys, Opdykes, 
Forquers, Fords, Lambs, and Herndons formed 
the Springfield aristocracy. Mr. Lincoln gained 
an excellent social as well as political standing 
at Springfield by his successful efforts about the 
capital removal, and also by his partnership with 
John T. Stuart. Consequently, when he married 
Miss Mary Todd, who was a member of the 
Kentucky aristocracy, it was not considered to 
be a mesalliance ; its only social consequence was 
to engender an envious feeling among the ple- 
beian fraternity who had theretofore claimed him. 
Throughout his social life he was always plain 
and unassuming; he Hved in very moderate con- 
dition ; had no man servant or errand boy, attend- 
ing to his horse, cow, woodpile, and stable him- 
self. He chopped wood, went to market, and did 
the chores and odd jobs about the place. This 
round of duties did not cease till a week after 

i6i 



i62 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

his nomination for the Presidency. His near- 
est neighbor was a working carpenter, and Lin- 
coln used frequently to go into his yard on neigh- 
borly errands, to do which he would strad- 
dle a low fence. However, his neighborly asso- 
ciation extended no further. This geographical 
neighbor was never in Mr. Lincoln's house ex- 
cept to make repairs, and the great President 
was never in his neighbor's house, except on 
small errands. I recollect that one of Lincoln's 
queerest stories includes a visit to his neigh- 
bor's kitchen to borrow spoons one evening, when 
he had company to tea. 

To reconcile some otherwise irreconcilable 
incidents of Mr. Lincoln's biography, an under- 
standing of the political and social bias of his 
neighbors and neighborhood is necessary. In 
1856, we are advised by local history that, al- 
though Herndon took extra pains to get up an 
enthusiastic reception to his illustrious partner 
upon a distinguished occasion, yet no one came 
except one obscure man, and the discomfited 
partners turned off the gas and went home 
very meek and chopfallen. Yet Lincoln had 
been his townsmen's Congressman eight years 
previously ; had been five several times elected by 
this same people to the Legislature — the last time 
only two years before. 

This inharmony between cause and effect had 
its basis in social and political prejudice; the 
early settlers of southern Illinois were from the 
slave States, and they were wedged in between 
either slave-holding communities, or those hav- 
ing such affiliations, so that the Yankees and 
Abolitionists were as much below par in south- 
ern and central Illinois as they were in Kentucky 



CITIZEN AND NEIGHBOR 163 

or Missouri. This prejudice invaded the sanctu- 
ary, and even when the theme was abounding 
grace and universal brotherhood, it still was not 
temporarily laid aside. The virtue of fraternal 
love could not be assumed, even in the fervor of 
religious zeal. A Chadband of the "hardshell" 
order thus exclaimed in a sermon : "The over- 
whelming torrent of free grace tuk in the moun- 
tings of Ashy, the isles of the sea, and the utter- 
most ends of the yearth. It tuk in the Eskimo 
and the Hottingtots; and some, my dear 
hrcthring, go so fur as to suppose it tuk in them 
air poor, benighted Yangkeys; but I don't go that 
furr 

Of course, when the Nebraska Bill was passed, 
this feeling became all the more rancorous, in 
view of the fact that the adherents of the "Anti- 
Nebraska" party came from the ranks of the 
hitherto pure and undefiled Democracy, as well 
as from the moribund Whig party, and the line 
of cleavage which had theretofore separated the 
Whigs and Democrats, now divided the Pro- 
slavery Democrats from the anti-extension of 
slavery element, and the prejudices became more 
intense and unyielding than before. An exhibi- 
tion may be given in the case of Governor Bissell, 
who as a member of Congress from Illinois had 
electrified all classes of the State by his prompt 
defence of the Illinois brigade in Mexico when 
assailed by Brown of Mississippi ; and by his 
equally prompt and eager acceptance of a chal- 
lenge from Jefiferson Davis, growing out of the 
same. Every Illinoisan felt a thrill of pride and 
exultation at this episode, and especially as Bis- 
sell abjured any mock-fighting by naming rifles 
at short range. Yet when this same gallant sol- 



i64 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

dier was elected as Governor by the Anti- 
Nebraska party, and being paralysed, so that he 
had to take the official oath in the Executive 
Mansion, the pro-slavery Democrats, from pure 
spleen, put forth Hon. Elijah Pogram to insult 
and vilify this brave soldier, because he had 
taken the official oath in the Executive Mansion, 
instead of in public, the fact being that he was 
too disabled by his wounds to do otherwise. 

The acerbity and illiberality of politics, of 
which this is a fair example, were more pro- 
nounced in Springfield than in other parts of the 
State, because the politicians from the whole 
State gathered there and made a public exhibi- 
tion of party rancor and animosity, and the citi- 
zens could not fail to imbibe it in its intensity. 
Even before 1854, the political contentions be- 
tween the Whigs and Democrats had been violent 
and wordy, and led to occasional physical colli- 
sions, but the Nebraska Bill increased the ran- 
cor, and changed the combatants. In Springfield, 
Lincoln, Logan, Herndon, Milton Hay, V/illiam 
Jayne, William Butler, and Cullom adhered to 
the Republicans ; while Stuart, Broodwell, 
Springer, and Matteson allied themselves to the 
Democrats, while the Edwardses were sometimes 
on one side and sometimes on the other. The 
cast and structure of Mr. Lincoln's mind and am- 
bition forbade him from having regard for po- 
litics having less than a national principle ; hence 
city or town politics had no charm for him. In 
his own family circle, Mr. Lincoln was the most 
affectionate and gentle of men. No man thought 
more of his wife and children than he, and he 
ofttimes was seen fondly carrying one of his chil- 
dren in his arms up and down on the sidevv^alk 



CITIZEN AND NEIGHBOR 165 

before the house, or drawing one in a little rude 
cart. 

Mr. Lincoln was an excellent citizen, in the 
sense of being a citizen of the whole State, and 
ultimately of the whole nation, although at the 
outset of his career his affiliations were local, 
and quadrated with Sangamon County alone. 
However, with expanded experience his social 
and political horizon expanded and enlarged, and 
he was no more intimately in touch or accord 
with the people of Springfield or Sangamon 
County than with those in Logan or McLean ; 
he considered himself as much obligated to the 
people of Danville as to those at his home. In 
his appointments to office, he wholly ignored 
geographical lines — even the local appointments 
for his judicial district were not from Spring- 
field. In his administration at Washington, it 
was in principle the same. He wanted a Cabinet 
Minister, Judd, from Illinois, but he considered 
that that State had enough consideration in his 
election ; he had no more regard in the matter of 
executive favors for Illinois than Maine ; geo- 
graphical propinquity and social propinquity had 
no alliance in his mind ; his social area covered 
the whole nation; his field was the world. He 
dealt in principles and institutions. To him, men 
were but agents or media to enforce, promulgate, 
or originate principles, and a man's locality had 
naught to do with his efficiency in that regard. 
Lincoln's highest social pastime was achieved on 
the circuit with the *'boys" (as we were termed) 
at Court-time. 

This catholicity of association, and consequent 
failure to localize his attachments explain in 
some degree the lack of that ardent sympathy for 



i66 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

him at home which sometimes cropped out. The 
bitterness of partisan politics, especially on the 
part of those who deemed his anti-slavery senti- 
ments recusant to the land of his fathers, aided 
this feeling, and his omission to recognize his 
fellow citizens properly in the distribution of 
Federal offices, all combined to produce a some- 
what social alienation, and prevented him from 
being, as abstractly, and on his individual merits, 
he would be, an ideally popular citizen. Not that 
he was unpopular, but he should have been popu- 
lar to the verge of enthusiasm, as he was when 
news of the location of the capital at Springfield 
reached that small village. 

That Mr. Lincoln, aside from the prejudices 
appurtenant to the slavery question, was a very 
popular citizen was frequently attested. His four 
several consecutive elections to the Legislature 
attest it; his immense majority for Congress on 
his ticket exhibits it ; his being elected to the Leg- 
islature in 1854 against his earnest protest con- 
firms it. 

He was a scrupulous observer of the laws, lo- 
cal and otherwise; he paid his debts and taxes 
promptly, did not let his little real estate get on 
the delinquent list, and his daily walk and conver- 
sation among men were circumspect. He neither 
attended church himself, nor sought to influence 
others from so doing; his example in all the 
minor morals was excellent. Politicians were ac- 
customed to drop in at saloons, of which there 
were plenty at Springfield and elsewhere on the 
circuit, but no one knowing Lincoln would have 
dreamed of seeing him in a saloon on any pre- 
tence. Yet he did not obtrude a temperance lec- 
ture on any one. 



CITIZEN AND NEIGHBOR 167 

In the joint debate at Ottawa, Douglas, in his 
reckless way, averred that Lincoln ''could ruin 
more liquor than all the boys of the town put to- 
gether"; while the unembellished fact was that 
Lincoln never at any time drank any liquor at 
all, and when he was younger it was the custom 
for all to drink. He told Swett that he absolutely 
never drank a drop of liquor in his life, and Wil- 
liam G. Greene's testimony I give elsewhere. A 
life on the frontier is not conducive to the reign 
of ascetic habits, yet Mr. Lincoln did not even 
embrace the vice of tobacco. Like all men on the 
frontier with whom intellect and its exercise is 
the engrossing quality, and especially one whose 
business on the circuit kept him absent half the 
year, his domestic habits were irregular. He had 
a habit of being out with the "boys," and might 
be found frequently at Burnes's grocery at the 
southwest corner of the public square entertain- 
ing the crowd, such being the custom of the 
place at this time, and Burnes's was a general 
loafing-place for all the local wits of the place, 
and was in the strict sense of the word a grocery 
— not a groggery. 

Mr. Lincoln shone resplendently in an associa- 
tion, in a social sense, with men, but not in a gen- 
eral company which likewise included the fair sex. 
Occasionally, on the circuit, we would be invited 
out to some social gatherings, and sometimes we 
would force Lincoln along, for he never would 
gravitate to such a place of his own accord. But 
he would be ill at ease. Judge Davis would be 
perfectly au fait in the little trivialities and "smorl 
tork" demanded, but Lincoln could make no ef- 
fort to shine. In my own home, with my little 
family, when he was a visitor, he was at ease. 



i68 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

and would hold my children avS fondly as one of 
coarser mould ; but the presence of females he 
was not familiar with abashed him extraordi- 
narily, especially if they had on extra frills or 
tuckers. He was not a polite or polished man 
outwardly; his graces and amenities were of the 
heart and affections. Several of us once were 
stopping at Judge Davis's, by invitation ; in his 
absence Lincoln was quite familiar with us all, 
and likewise with our hostess, who was a lady 
of rare attainments and of extreme simplicity of 
style and character. There was no margin for 
restraint there, but as we came to the dining- 
room for our first meal, Lincoln adroitly and 
suddenly sat down at a side of the table. *'Why, 
Mr. Lincoln," said the lady of the house, *T ex- 
pected you to occupy Mr. Davis's place at the 
foot of the table." *T thought so," was the re- 
ply, with a chuckle of satisfaction, **and that's 
why I hurried up and got here. Let Whitney 
run the carving." 

On the circuit, Swett, Gridley, Oliver Davis, 
Lamon, and others seemed to consider that the 
dignity of the profession required that they 
should erect some sort of a social fence or bar- 
rier between themselves and the masses that we 
would meet, but there was none of this attempt 
at exclusiveness with Lincoln. It was not infre- 
quent to see him, while Court was engaged in 
something which did not concern him, sitting on 
a store box on the sidewalk, either entertaining, 
or being entertained by, some of our villagers; 
nor was there any affectation or demagogical 
art in this; it was in accordance with his plain, 
unaffected, undramatic style. 

Judge Cunningham narrates that at our mass- 



CITIZEN AND NEIGHBOR 169 

meeting in 1858, he had charge of arrangements 
on the ground, and placed Mr. Lincoln at the 
post of honor at the guests' table ; when Lincoln 
saw an old lady whom he called "Granny" Hutch- 
inson, without a seat, he insisted that she take his 
seat, while he stood up and munched from his 
hand something that he had procured from the 
table. 

I suppose one could not sanely imagine Daniel 
Webster or Rufus Choate appearing before a 
Justice of the Peace and trying a case involving 
a few dollars for a five-dollar fee, yet Mr. Lin- 
coln did not disdain to do that on our circuit. 
''All was fish that came into his net," and I have 
in my mind's eye at this moment a rudimentary 
lawyer, who then was merely an aspirant to the 
bar, and whose chief pride and boast had been 
for thirty-five years, and is yet, that he tried a 
case against Lincoln before a justice in our 
county in 1856, and beat him. And I may re- 
mark here that the "justice of the peace" style 
of trying cases was more agreeable to Mr. Lin- 
coln than any other. The ancient style of plead- 
ing was ''ore tenus," and written pleading came 
later; a simple verbal statement of the issues in 
a case was suited to Lincoln's simplicity of style 
and manner, and the simplicity attendant upon a 
Justice Court was much more in harmony with 
his wishes than the elaboration and red-tape of 
a Court of Record. 

Mr. Lincoln did not meddle with, or obtrude 
himself upon, his neighbors or their local mat- 
ters, nor did he after 1840 personally ask them 
to support him for office. When he ran for Con- 
gress, his largely increased vote on the ticket at 
a previous election indicated his local popularity, 



I70 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

and I have already said somewhere that at his 
first candidacy in 1832 he secured every vote in 
his own precinct but three. Mr. Lincoln per- 
sonally was a very popular man; aside from po- 
litical animosities, I don't think he did have, or 
could have, an enemy. 

While he was careless, indifferent, and 
''slouchy" about his attire, no note was taken of 
it by acquaintances; his companionship was so 
interesting and desirable that his attire was not 
regarded. The same principle inhered in his per- 
sonal appearance. A snob or dude might deem 
him ''homely" ; no man or woman of sensibility 
would think of that subject in any way on ac- 
quaintance. 

Aside from all politics, Mr. Lincoln was one of 
the most interesting men I ever saw ; he had no 
envy, malice, or spite — no ill-feeling of any kind 
toward anybody ; he was deferential but not obse- 
quious ; he miade no sarcastic remarks. He em- 
ployed no social tyranny to one in his power ; he 
had no angularity except physically ; was not in- 
quisitive about the affairs of others ; was disin- 
terested and magnanimous, not supercilious or 
discourteous ; was generous and forgiving to a 
fault. He was not only sincere and candid, but 
he assured you by his conduct that he was so; 
his actions towards men symbolized his be- 
lief that the greatest of the social virtues was 
charity. Every social element was agreeable. No 
true man ever had cause to repent his acquaint- 
ance ; in the extremely rare cases of those who 
disliked him on other than political grounds, the 
party offended was of a narrow, illiberal order ; the 
fault certainly could not be laid at the door 
of generous Abraham Lincoln. Of him the 



CITIZEN AND NEIGHBOR 171 

classic eulogium may in sober truth be said with- 
out hyperbole : 

Neither the ardor of citizens ordering base things, 
nor the face of the threatening tyrant, shakes a man, 
just and tenacious of principle, from his firm intentions. 



CHAPTER X 

LAWYER 

Mr. Lincoln was not well grounded in the 
principles of law, nor was he a well-read lawyer. 
He had an intuitive sense of abstract justice, but 
he had no conception of rules, technicalities, or 
limitations ; he knew nothing of decisions, except 
such as came with his own experience; he did 
not approve of being hampered by precedents ; 
to him, estoppals were unjust; he had no patience 
with technicalities as such, desiring to consider 
every case as disconnected with all else, and to 
be tried on its abstract and unencumbered merits 
alone. 

While lawyers of small abilities would array 
a list of authorities to support their contention, 
Lincoln would try to establish his by logic. His 
strength as a lawyer lay in his analytical and 
reasoning faculties, i.e., he could apperceive the 
matter at issue and deduce the true conclusion 
from it with as much facility and strength as he 
could achieve the same results from moral 
questions. 

A lawyer has a right — in fact, it is the present 
mode of law practice — to use the labors of the 
profession, and appropriate former decisions to 
enforce his views. Lincoln did this, of course, but 
only subordinate to his own logical considera- 
tion of the case; hence the labors of those who 
172 



LAWYER 173 

preceded him were not of nearly the same value 
to him as to his adversary. However, when it 
came to cases with no well-defined precedent, 
then it was that Lincoln had a powerful advan- 
tage, for he had no superior, certainly, and but 
very few equals, at our bar in original reason- 
ing. Take it all in all, he had probably only 
one superior as a lawyer in our circuit, viz. : Ste- 
phen T, Logan. 

In a rough-and-tumble practice on the circuit, 
where advocacy was relied on rather than exact 
knowledge or application of legal principles, he 
was especially effective. He had a frank and 
cordial way of dealing with witnesses, and his 
memory was of a methodical cast ; he recollected 
the evidence as it accrued, and assigned each 
element thereof to its proper room, hall, or vesti- 
bule in his memory, to be withdrawn when need- 
ful, for use. 

He was courteous yet skilful in cross-examina- 
tion, and had a faculty of so cajoling a witness 
as to make him (as my father once put it) say 
just what he wanted him to say. His candor 
and honesty were very effective weapons for suc- 
cess. A statement made by Lincoln was almost 
invariably accepted as correct; and I have on 
more than one occasion known of a case with in- 
tricate details being made to appear so clear on 
both sides, by Lincoln's lucid and comprehensive 
statement, as to be very much simplified, if not, 
indeed, as was sometimes the case, made ready 
on both sides for the decision without argument. 

Mr. Lincoln contemned useless or irrelevant 
litigation ; he had little patience with tort cases 
or with technical defences. He was much an- 
noyed at dilatory tactics or preliminary skirmish- 



174 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

ing for advantage, he disliked long drawn-out 
trials, and desired quickly obtained results ; he 
was fond of settlements and compromises, when 
the parties themselves would move in the mat- 
ter, but if the litigation was wholly useless, he 
would move in the matter himself. 

He would always give a perfectly fair and can- 
did opinion as to the merits of a case and the 
probability of success, and would not enter into 
a case he knew to be dishonest. In a case, how- 
ever, where the dishonesty was developed dur- 
ing the trial, he would simply do what he hon- 
estly could for success, and no more. I have 
known him to injure a case, when he became con- 
vinced during the trial that he was on the dis- 
honest or unjust side of it. 

His view of morals was broad and catholic ; 
his integrity was not confined to any special line 
or particular mode; to him, there should be a 
quid pro quo in all social attrition or mercantile 
dealing. To charge too much for a thing was, to 
his view, dishonest ; to gain a lawsuit by sophis- 
try or chicanery equally so. The basis of his hos- 
tility to slavery was his consciousness of its dis- 
honesty, in exacting service for nothing, and of 
its injustice in coercing and enslaving men. Al- 
though he was philanthropic toward his own 
race, he had no feelings of philanthropy toward 
the black race, but only the feeling that injustice 
should not be visited upon them. 

He had this marked peculiarity, that, although 
he was one of the most amiable and courteous of 
associates in a case, yet he pursued his own in- 
dependent course in his share, whatever it was, 
of its management, nor would he reveal his de- 
signs in the least degree to his colleagues. I 



LAWYER 175 

have, on many occasions, held consultations with 
him in which I would get no hint from him as 
to his vievv^s or designs about the case. On one 
occasion, Swett and I sat on a bench in the ex- 
treme rear of the courtroom while Lincoln closed 
to the jury on our side, and we were utterly 
astonished at the cruel mode in which he applied 
the knife to all of the fine-spun theories we had 
crammed the jury with. 

He was extremely accommodating and cour- 
teous to his adversary, and likewise to the ad- 
verse witnesses, provided they told the truth ; 
but woe to them if they falsified! for he had no 
charity for falsehood anywhere, least of all for 
exhibitions of it on the witness stand, and the 
logical structure of his mind afforded him the 
means to detect falsehood, almost inevitably. He 
would brook no insult or sarcasm from an op- 
ponent, but he never unfairly or uncharitably 
presumed that an insult was intended. He 
waived all mere technicalities and minor and in- 
consequential matters ; conceded in advance all 
that he knew could be as well proved; gathered 
up the essential matters in a bunch, and rested 
his case upon them. 

The consideration and trial of cases was to 
him matter-of-fact responsible labor; he intro- 
duced no pleasantry or quips therein, but soberly 
and discreetly arrayed all advantages orderly, for 
his side of the case. He studied both sides of 
his case, and considered the course of tactics 
which his opponent would probably pursue, quite 
as thoroughly as he considered his own. Noth- 
ing moved or excited him in the course of a trial ; 
he presented the same calm, placid, and im- 
perturbable exterior when disaster frowned, as 



176 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

when good fortune smiled, upon the career of a 
case. 

We had a client once who took occasion to 
complain to me about alleged unsatisfactory man- 
agement of a case. I asked Lincoln to placate 
him, as I could not. *'Let him howl," was \ht 
reply I got, after a moment's deliberation. 

He minded his own business better than any 
lawyer I ever saw ; he stuck to his case, or to his 
part of it, and rendered no advice to any one else 
about his or their duties, but he performed his 
functions independently and siii generis, and let 
the responsibility of others' actions rest upon 
themselves. Considering the magnitude of my 
early business at the bar, I was a careless law- 
yer, and often drew upon myself the reproofs 
of older colleagues, but never from Lincoln. In 
our joint cases, of which there were many, he 
did the best he could for the case in hand, plus 
the difficulty caused by my affirmatively bad 
management, or minus the advantage that proper 
management on my part would have secured. 

To the ''mint, anise, and cummin" of a case, 
he was indifferent. Whether the pleadings were 
artistic or inartistic ; whether the formal facts 
had been sufficiently established, etc., he cared 
nothing, and attempted no advantage thereby ; he 
wanted no less a fight than on the merits. 

No matter how eventful or exciting a trial was, 
he remained entirely calm, unexcited, imper- 
turbable ; you could not discern by his manner 
that he had the slightest tinge either of trepida- 
tion or enthusiasm, but he remained inflexible 
and stoical to the last. Once I had an impor- 
tant railroad suit that I secured his aid in, and as 
the able counsel on the other side was dealing 



LAWYER 177 

out heavy "wisdom licks" at us, I got alarmed, 
and spoke to Lincoln about it; he sat inflexibly 
calm and serene, and merely remarked : ''All that 
is very easily answered," and when his time 
came, he blew away what seemed to me as al- 
most an unaswerable argument as easily as a 
beer-drinker blows off the froth from his foaming 
tankard. 

Through his accurate perceptions, he would 
discern what was genuine and what was sophisti- 
cal ; many a time have I seen him tear the mask 
off from a fallacy and shame both the fallacy 
and its author. In a railway case we were try- 
ing, the opposing lawyer tried to score a point 
by stating that the plaintiff was a flesh-and-blood 
man, with a soul like the jurymen had, while our 
client was a soulless corporation. Lincoln re- 
plied thus : ''Counsel avers that his client has a 
soul. This is possible, but from the way he has 
testified under oath in this case, to gain, or 
hope to gain, a few paltry dollars, he would sell, 
nay, has already sold, his little soul very low. 
But our client is but a conventional name for 
thousands of widows and orphans whose hus- 
bands' and parents' hard earnings are repre- 
sented by this defendant, and who possess souls 
v/hich they would not swear away as the plain- 
tiff has done for ten million times as much as is 
at stake here." 

He did not, as a rule, ''play to the pit" in his 
addresses to the jury, but simply confined himself 
closely to his case. However, I recollect once 
in the evening at Urbana, Lincoln was arguing 
a case, when some ladies came in, and we made 
room for them within the bar, which caused a 
little commotion, and Lincoln said : "I perceive. 



178 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

gentlemen, that you are like all the rest of the 
fellers in your admiration of the fair sex — in 
fact, I think, from appearances, that you are a 
little worse than the common run," and he added 
something else that provoked laughter; and he 
waited a minute and then said patronizingly : 
''Now, bo3^s, behave yourselves," and went on 
with his argument. 

I have heretofore adverted to his intellectual 
honesty, and, of course, by that I do not mean 
his acumen or intellectual grasp and vigor of 
mind. It is common to have intellectual power. 
Webster had that in a marked degree, but he 
was not intellectually honest, and hence we find 
him in history advocating free trade in 1816, and 
a high tariff in 1836. He is seen working hand 
in hand with the friends of freedom anterior to 
1850 and abnegating his record on the 7th of 
March. That ''honesty is the best policy" was 
well established in the career and empty results 
of the life of this man so great intellectually and 
so essentially feeble morally; and in the career 
and fruitful results of the life of Abraham Lin- 
coln, as seen in his great mission, its faithful per- 
formance, and his immortal fame. A man of the 
former class, of which, alas ! there are too many 
in our history, is equally at home in arguing 
either in unison with, or contrary to, his con- 
victions ; it is simply a little more difficult to ar- 
gue dishonestly than honestly — that is all with 
him. But it was morally impossible for Lincoln 
to argue dishonestly ; he could no more do it than 
he could steal; it was the same thing to him in 
essence, to despoil a man of his property by lar- 
ceny, or by illogical or flagitious reasoning; and 
even to defeat a suitor by technicalities or by 



LAWYER 179 

merely arbitrary law savored strongly of dishon- 
esty to him. 

Lincoln was usually very mild, benign, and 
accommodating in his practice on the circuit; 
but occasionally he would get pugnacious. *'Oh ! 
No ! No ! ! No ! ! !" said McWilHams once, in a 
trial, to a witness, who was straying beyond the 
domain of legitimate evidence, as he thought. 
''Oh ! YES ! Yes ! ! YES ! ! !" shouted Lincoln, look- 
ing daggers at McWilliams, who quailed under 
Lincoln's determined look. 

He gave but the slightest attention to rules 
of evidence, and rarely objected to the admission 
of anything at all allowable ; he could not endure 
those illiberal practices required at the hands of 
the complete lawyer; he could not practice or 
countenance that selfishness which the require- 
ments of good practice demanded. All the gen- 
eralizations of his mind tended to frankness, fair- 
ness, and the attainment of substantial justice, 
and the simplest mode was to him the best. In 
entering upon a trial, he stated the whole case 
on both sides, as he understood it, with fairness 
and frankness, not attempting to gloss over the 
faults and imperfections of his own case, or to 
improperly disparage the adverse side. 

But when the strain came, Lincoln was very 
apt to bear down heavily on his adversary's case, 
and a novice who presumed much on Lincoln's 
graces and amenities as the case was being de- 
veloped, frequently found himself in the lurch 
when the crisis was reached. 

I once brought suit on a Kentucky judgment, 
and Lincoln, with others, was employed to de- 
fend. Oliver L. Davis, v/ho was with Lincoln, 
taunted me before trial that they not only would 



i8o LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

defeat, but would make me ridiculous. I ap- 
pealed to Lincoln, who comforted me by saying : 
''Don't you mind Oliver; it is merely like any 
other case, and I'll see, at least, that there is no 
ridicule about it" ; but when we went into trial, 
and the thermometer of the case got up to 96 
degrees in the shade, Lincoln went for me and 
my case as vigorously as the others, and I was 
entirely alone against all the talent of that end 
of the circuit. It is needless to say that I was 
gloriously beaten. 

Lincoln's guileless exterior concealed a great 
fund of shrewdness and common sense about or- 
dinary matters, as well as genius in the higher 
realms. 

I remember once, that while several of us law- 
yers were together, including Judge Davis, Lin- 
coln suddenly asked a novel question of court 
practice, addressed to no one particularly, to 
which the Judge, who was in the habit, certainly, 
of appropriating his full share of any conversa- 
tion, replied, stating what he understood the 
practice should be. 

Lincoln thereat laughed and said : ''I asked 
that question, hoping that you would answer. I 
have that very question to present to the Court 
in the morning, and I am glad to find out that 
the Court is on my side." 

When Lincoln desired to make an extra good 
effort, or when he had a difficult case, he would 
be missing — he would hide somewhere, and by 
self-introspection mature his plans. He did not 
have any particular place to hide — the unused 
back room of a law office, or an obscure corner 
of the Clerk's office, or a lonely bedroom of the 
travelling bar, the streets of the village, or the 



LAWYER i8i 

woods, were alike serviceable and equally put in 
requisition by him. He had a talent for em- 
bracing the whole scope and plan and all essen- 
tial details of a case within the area of his mind, 
in an orderly and systematic manner. He took 
no notes and made no memoranda, and rarely, 
if ever, made any mistake in referring to the evi- 
dence, in his argument. 

The petty advantages on his side in a case, he 
did not urge with any force or pertinacity, but 
arrayed his strongest points and relied exclu- 
sively on them. His ability to separate impor- 
tant and controlling matters from those which 
were secondary, was marked, and showed great 
analytical skill ; he abhorred that style of prac- 
tice which attributed unworthy motives to an ad- 
versary, or enforced technicalities to the exclu- 
sion of justice or progress. He allowed to ad- 
verse evidence or argument their fullest value 
and importance ; never sought to disparage or 
"damn with faint praise" an opponent or his 
arguments, and in minor and inconsequential 
points, would help his adversary along, and this 
especially if he was a young practitioner. In 
trying a case before the court, without a jury, he 
would summarize the case as impartially on both 
sides as the impartial judge could do it himself; 
no matter what the case was, he would get pos- 
session of the facts, and form his own conclu- 
sions upon them without any extraneous aid or 
suggestions. In formulating his mode of treat- 
ment, he gave little attention to technicalities or 
any advantage to be derived therefrom ; his guid- 
ing star was not expediency but principle; not 
coigns of vantage but justice. He made no pre- 
tensions to anything beyond circuit court ability, 



1 82 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

yet he was occasionally employed in important 
cases outside, and not infrequently went to Chi- 
cago, and once or twice to Cincinnati on business 
connected with a patent suit.* 

The last case he ever tried was an important 
case involving the question of accretion, in which 
he took the lead on our side, and argued the ques- 
tion, so far as he was concerned, on original prin- 
ciples and vv^ith great ability. This case was tried 
in March and decided early in April, somewhat 
less than two months before the assembling of 
the "Wigwam" convention. It is somewhat sin- 
gular that the senior opposing counsel to Mr. 
Lincoln was Hon. Buckner S. Morris, who had 
been a leading lawyer in Chicago, and who was 
afterwards Treasurer of the ''Sons of Liberty," 
and who was tried by a court-martial at Cincin- 
nati during the war on a charge of being involved 
in the Camp Douglas conspiracy, of which he 
was acquitted. In point of fact, Mr. Morris read 
law with Henry Clay at Lexington at the same 
time that Mary Todd, who became Mr. Lincoln's 
wife, was a schoolgirl there. I may, however, 
say that Mr. Lincoln was an uneven lawyer — that 
his best results were achieved as a result of long 
and continuous reflection; the various elements 
of a case did not group themselves in apt and 
proper position and order in his mind on first 
impression; hence he was not as self-reliant in a 
new case as in one he had fully discussed and 



* This suit was McCormick vs. Manny. William H. 
Seward, Reverdy Johnson, Edward N. Dickinson, and 
Isaac N. Arnold were for complainant ; and Edwin M. 
Stanton, George F. Harding, and Abraham Lincoln 
were for defendant. 



LAWYER 183 

decided in his own mind, and his first impressions 
in a case were not his best ones. 

He did not disdain any association, and Hs- 
tened to all suggestions from those associated 
with him with patience and deference, and gave 
as much weight to a good suggestion from a 
novice as from a veteran. In a hard case, how- 
ever, he was eager for good auxiliary connec- 
tions, and Leonard Swett was his favorite in a 
difficult jury case. Lincoln was preeminently a 
man of peace, and discountenanced all litigation 
whose origin, vital principle, or main auxiliary 
was vengeance, ill-feeling. He promoted and 
favored all compromises, as I have said, but asked 
no quarter or favors, and fought to the bitter 
end all contested cases not susceptible of 
accommodation. 

His imperturbability was one of his strong 
points; the only excitement he ever betrayed in 
court was when he got righteously indignant at 
the actions of some one in a case — then he was 
terrible in his wrath ; he has been known (though 
rarely) to transcend the bounds of decorum on 
such occasions. While, as a lawyer, he was not 
great, yet he admired a great lawyer and de- 
spised a charlatan with a high reputation. He 
once told me that John McLean, United States 
Supreme Judge, had considerable vigor of mind, 
but no acuteness of discernment at all; he also 
said to me of Archibald Williams, whom he made 
United States Judge in Kansas, that he had more 
ability to discuss law questions to learned law- 
yers than any lawyer he knew. Of Judge T. 
Lyle Dickey, he said : *'He can draw such fine 
distinctions where I can't see any distinction, yet 
I have no doubt a distinction does exist." 



i84 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

He studied the character and abiHty of Lord 
Bacon, and was greatly charmed with it. "But 
how about his taking bribes ?" I asked him. ''He 
did take bribes, but never made any change in 
his decision," was the reply. It struck me as 
strange. Bacon's transcendent ability seemed to 
condone, in Lincoln's estimation, his flagitious 
conduct. 

He charged insignificant fees. The first really 
adequate fee I ever knew him to charge was 
$5000 for trying the case of The Illinois Central 
Railroad Company vs. McLean and Champaign 
Counties. The railway claimed that the land 
comprised within its land grant was not taxable 
till a patent issued ; while the counties claimed 
that they were taxable as soon as they were al- 
lotted. A formal decision was rendered by the 
lower court, and the case argued before the Su- 
preme Court at Springfield. There were three sev- 
eral counsel : Lincoln and Herndon, James F. Joy 
of Detroit, and Mason Brayman. Joy was an in- 
flential railway lawyer, with a great influence and 
an exalted opinion of himself, and, although it is 
probable that Lincoln did the most effective serv- 
ice, it was quite natural for Joy to disparage 
Lincoln's efforts, and he did, in fact, do so. Ac- 
cordingly, when his bill came in and Joy had to 
audit it, he not only disallowed it, but spoke con- 
temptuously of its author as a "common country 
lawyer." Lincoln then sued in the McLean Cir- 
cuit Court, and, somehow, no defence being 
made, a default was taken. Lincoln, however, 
allowed the default to be set aside and the case 
set down for trial. John M. Douglass, then our 
solicitor, consulted with me about the matter; I 
said that even if the amount was too large, we 



LAWYER 185 

could not afford to have Lincoln as our enemy, 
instead of an ally, on the circuit, and I insisted 
further, and with greater force, that he would 
beat us anyhow, both in the circuit and Supreme 
Courts. Douglass paid the fee. (Somehow, 
plain as this case is, it has never been correctly 
stated by any historian.) 

Mr. Lincoln never let his diversion obtrude 
upon the serious business of his law practice, but 
he felt the responsibility and gravity of his posi- 
tion, and entered into all trials with the atten- 
tion, dignity, and decorum demanded; he would 
sometimes score a point by fun in some way, but 
he did not resort to pleasantry to the detriment 
of his case. 

In the long run his honesty, and, more particu- 
larly, his reputation therefor, was a great and 
potent factor for success. When he made a state- 
ment for judicial or forensic action, it carried 
weight and authority. He stated nothing mor- 
ally impossible : his demeanor was that of per- 
sonified honesty; and his reputation was a letter 
of recommendation, convincing, if not con- 
clusive. 

After his death, the Nestors of the Illinois 
bench and bar, and lawyers and judges of high 
and low degree, grave and sedate men with no 
imagination or fancy, spoke in eulogy of him. 
There was not the slightest diversity of opinion 
on either his honesty or ability ; and the apparent 
disparagement of Judge Davis that Lincoln had 
no managing faculty nor organizing power in a 
case and that a child could conform to simple 
and technical rules better than he, was not liter- 
ally true. The whole truth is that Lincoln did 
not grovel amid the minor trivialities of the 



i86 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

technical, but reigned amid the stars of the im- 
mutable and eternal principles of justice. 

Isaac N. Arnold, one of the leaders of the 
Chicago bar, delivered a lecture before the Illi- 
nois Bar Association on January 7, 1881, in 
course of which he said of Mr. Lincoln : 

"In any courtroom in the United States, he would 
Have been instantly picked out as a Western man. His 
stature, figure, dress, manner, voice, and accent indi- 
cated that he was of the Northwest. In manner, he 
was always cordial and frank, and, although not with- 
out dignity, he made every person feel quite at his ease. 
I think the first impression a stranger would get of him, 
whether in conversation or by hearing him speak, was 
that here was a kind, frank, sincere, genuine man of 
transparent truthfulness and integrity ; and before Lin- 
coln had uttered many words, he would be impressed 
with his clear, good sense, his remarkably simple, 
homely but expressive Saxon language, and next by his 
wonderful wit and humor. Lincoln was more familiar 
with the Bible than any other book in the language ; 
and this was apparent both from his style and illus- 
trations, so often taken from that book. He verified 
the maxim that it is better to know thoroughly a few 
good books, than to read many." 

While I cannot think, with any idea of pro- 
priety, of Lincoln sitting as a Judge, it yet seems 
to me that if he had been made a successor of 
John Marshall, he would, by his moral and log- 
ical acquirements, have achieved as great re- 
nown, in spite of his lack of the judicial tem- 
perament. 

Lincoln's partnership with John T. Stuart 
commenced in March, 1837, and ended on April 
14, 1841, when he formed a partnership with 
Judge Stephen T. Logan, who had previously 
been the Circuit Judge, and was then the best 
lawyer in the State. The firm of Logan & Lin- 



LAWYER 187 

coin lasted till the early spring of 1843, when Lin- 
coln withdrew on account of some little feeling, 
growing out of the political canvass for Con- 
gress, both partners then being aspirants. Wil- 
liam H. Herndon had just commenced to practise, 
and he was not only a young man of promise, 
but his family was very extensive, of great re- 
spectability, and highly influential. Lincoln, 
therefore, proposed a partnership, which Hern- 
don gladly accepted. It lasted eighteen years, 
and during the entire term no accounts were 
kept, and not a word of dispute ever occurred 
between the partners. 

After Lincoln became Logan's partner, he did 
not venture far from home to practise; he did, 
however, attend Menard County, that embracing 
the region of country which had been the theatre 
of his surveying and early political operations, 
and where, therefore, he had a large and favor- 
able acquaintance. After his partnership com- 
menced with Herndon, he extended his circuit 
business somewhat, but still did not attempt to 
achieve a general practice on the circuit. Enter- 
ing into politics in 1846, and being absent in 
Washington for a considerable part of two years, 
his practice was very much broken in upon — in 
fact, was largely dissipated and lost. 

His comparative failure in Congress induced in 
him a belief that he was not adapted to politics, 
and, besides, his finances had become somewhat 
attenuated by its pursuit. The result was a more 
general and systematic application to the prac- 
tice of law. Accordingly, he began to travel 
the entire circuit with Judge Davis, the circuit 
then being denominated the Eighth, and embrac- 
ing the counties of Sangamon, Logan, Tazewell, 



i88 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

Woodford, McLean, Champaign, Vermilion, 
Edgar, Coles, Piatt, Macon, De Witt, Shelby, 
Moultrie, and Christian. 

In those early days, it should not be forgotten, 
the law business was not only very meagre, but 
quite informal ; cases were not then decided upon 
authority, as I have said, so much as upon log- 
ical consideration. Lincoln gained friends at 
once ; politics and law were closely entwined, and 
political prejudice was quite as intense then as 
it ever was. Lincoln had been the only Whig 
from Illinois in the Congress of 1847-48, and par- 
tisans of his faith on the circuit were likely to 
cleave to him both as parties and jurors. His 
story-telling propensities stood him in good stead, 
and yielded a large following of admirers. He 
was more thoroughly advertised on the circuit 
through the media of his anecdotes than by either 
his Congressional experience or his law practice. 
Law practice was more difficult then than now 
by reason of the dearth of authority, and of the 
method then in vogue of reasoning out cases upon 
primordial and original principles. As a conse- 
quence, young men counted for little in law prac- 
tice in contested cases, and the habit was general 
to employ leaders on the circuit in anything 
which savored of a contested case. There waS 
not, at that time, any lawyer who travelled over 
the entire circuit. Logan rarely left his own 
county ; Stuart attended only Tazewell ; Logan 
and McLean, the Macon lawyers, went only to 
Piatt; Swett and Gridley attended McLean, De 
Witt, Champaign, and Vermilion; Scott of Mc- 
Lean went only to the northern counties ; and 
Moore of De Witt limited his practice to his own 
county and McLean. 



LAWYER 189 

Courts lasted nearly six months in the year, 
and the judge and lawyers generally contrived 
to spend as many Sabbaths at home as they could. 
Lincoln did not join in this effort, but, contrari- 
wise, when he set out on a tour of the circuit, 
generally continued until the end. Nothing could 
be duller than remaining on the Sabbath in a 
country inn of that time after adjournment of 
court. Good cheer had expended its force during 
court week, and blank dulness succeeded; but 
Lincoln would entertain the few lingering rousta- 
bouts of the barroom with as great zest, appar- 
ently, as he had previously entertained the court 
and bar, and then would hitch up his horse, ''Old 
Tom," as he was called, and, solitary and alone, 
ride off to the next term in course. One would 
naturally suppose that the leading lawyer of the 
circuit, in a pursuit which occupied nearly half 
his time, would make himself comfortable, but 
he did not. His horse was as rawboned and 
weird-looking as himself, and his buggy, an open 
one, as rude as either; his attire was that of an 
ordinary farmer or stock-raiser, while the sum- 
total of his baggage consisted of a very attenu- 
ated carpetbag, an old weather-beaten umbrella, 
and a short blue cloak reaching to his hips — a 
style which was prevalent during the Mexican 
War. This he had procured at Washington 
while a Congressman, and carried about with 
him as a winter covering for the years there- 
after. He read no law on the circuit, except 
when needed for a special case, nor did he read 
general literature. Instead he would read and 
study a pocket geometry, which he carried about 
with him; after the year 1854 he gave especial 
attention to the newspapers, and watched the 



190 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

growth and drift of political sentiment in that 
way more assiduously than any one whom I ever 
knew. 

He was utterly indifferent as to the appearance 
or merits of any tavern or place he stopped at ; it 
was a matter of no consequence to him whether 
a caravansary was good, bad, or indifferent 
— the chief solicitude with him was the mag- 
nitude of the bill, for from necessity he was very 
prudent in his expenditures, and so would stop 
at the cheaper taverns. He did not, however, 
violate good policy in that regard, and whenever 
it was convenient roomed with the judge while 
out on the circuit, the general knowledge of this 
fact being" helpful in the way of securing busi- 
ness from people who augured therefrom that ad- 
vantages accrued to him in consequence. This in- 
ference was entirely erroneous, for social "chaff" 
made no impression on the judge on the bench. 
Frequently on the circuit, we were accustomed 
to stop at farmhouses for dinner, and sometimes 
over night. Upon such occasions, Lincoln would 
not be long in entertaining the whole household 
with his drolleries. He readily assimilated him- 
self to any position or circumstances, and was 
as thoroughly at home in an unhewed log cabin 
as at the Pike House, an elegant hotel in Bloom- 
ington, where he stopped when in that city. 

While Mr. Lincoln was more guarded and less 
unrestrained in his narration of anecdotes to a 
crowd in a public place than to a select few in 
the privacy of one room, yet he was not particu- 
lar as to the character of his auditory. In fact, 
I have known of his regaling a miscellaneous 
crowd of farmers, stable boys, and general roust- 
abouts in the common waiting-room of a country 



LAWYER 191 

inn with as much apparent zest as our coterie, 
embracing the elite of the bench and bar. Prob- 
ably, however, his story-telHng adjuncts were 
more completely attained in our morning and 
evening walks than at any other time ; and if the 
ghosts of the departed trees in the '*big grove" 
at Urbana, or the manes of the stumps east of 
Danville could speak, they might unfold some 
startling revelations. I can easily recall in fancy 
the crowd of roisterers all of whom save my- 
self have departed for the land of shadows, and 
especially the Abraham Lincoln of my early days 
as we thronged these primitive ways. Imagine 
a loose-jointed, carelessly attired, homely m.an, 
with a vacant, mischievous look and mien, awk- 
wardly halting along in the suburbs of the little 
prairie village, in the midst of a crowd of wild, 
Western lawyers, he towering above the rest, tak- 
ing in the whole landscape, with an apparent va- 
cuity of stare, but with deep penetration and oc- 
cult vision. Something would remind him of 
''the feller in Indiana," or the ''man down in 
Florida," and all would crane their necks to hear 
the story. At its conclusion, the whole crowd 
would explode with laughter, Lincoln himself 
more emphatically than the rest. The reflection 
that this uncouth and clumsy joker should have 
been designated by Providence to be "the great- 
est leader of men that the world ever saw" could 
never have occurred in fiction, and is almost too 
improbable for belief as a practical fact. 

I was once complaining, while attending court 
at Danville, that I had no business in that court, 
having but two or three cases, when Lincoln 
said : "You have as much business here as I used 
to have; I listened to a French street peddler's 



192 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

antics here half a day once, simply because I had 
not one particle of business." 

The only remark savoring of sarcasm or re- 
buke which Mr. Lincoln ever bestowed on me at 
the bar or elsewhere (except on one occasion 
when he was President) occurred while a small 
case in which we were interested was being closed 
by a speech on the other side, to which Lincoln 
was languidly listening; the next case for trial 
being an important one in which we also were 
together. Said I : ''I am afraid the old war-horse 
ain't stirred up to the importance of the next 
case"; he looked at me Hstlessly and said: "Do 
you want the old war-horse to haul two loads at 
once?" That and one other time I refer to in my 
"Life on the Circuit with Lincoln" (page 474) 
are the only times Lincoln ever said anything to 
me to cause me to feel cheap. 

Judge Davis often delegated his judicial func- 
tions to others. I have known of his getting 
Moon of Clinton to hold court for him in 
Bloomington for whole days ; Lincoln to hold an 
entire term, and frequently to sit for short tirnes ; 
and I even knew of Colonel Bryant of Indiana 
to hold court for him at Danville. All judgments 
rendered by these lawyers were voidable. Time 
has probably now cured them; it was a hazard- 
ous business for them and the sheriff and suitors 
in their cases. 

During the greater part of the time that Lin- 
coln rode the circuit, railways did not form the 
usual means of travel ; and our methods of loco- 
motion and accommodation on the circuit were 
of the era of the stage-coach and country taverns, 
and those who are without experience cannot 
know to how great an extent the advent of the 



LAWYER 193 

locomotive is the exodus of sentiment, and a de- 
struction of homely simplicity. 

In those sober and prosaic days, the pubHc- 
house was called a tavern, and at meal-times the 
guests were placed at a long table, with the most 
distinguished guest at the foot of the table, and 
the sum-total of the victuals arrayed all along 
the table. During court week, the choice places 
at the foot of the table were reserved for the 
court and bar, and witnesses, jurymen, and pris- 
oners out on bail were ranged along the same 
table. Peddlers and travelling mountebanks took 
advantage of the throngs which court week usu- 
ally brought, to ply their vocations, and the out- 
lying farmers embraced those occasions to pay 
their taxes and debts, swap horses and jack- 
knives, do their trading, and listen to the ex- 
change of professional compliments, clashing of 
wits, sallies of sarcasm, and flights of eloquence 
in the courthouse. As the court and bar 
were necessarily together, sleeping or waking, 
throughout the circuit, in business or at rest, 
there must needs be social attrition and intimacy, 
more or less pronounced, all around, and Judge 
Davis's ''best hold" was as a host, entertainer, 
and head of the social organization of the cir- 
cuit. The judge greatly loved attention, to 
be paid court to; he was extremely fond 
of prudent and proper conviviality, and was 
wont to put every newcomer on the circuit 
on a period of probation, giving him op- 
portunity to prove himself a proper member of 
our coterie, where, if he succeeded, he was ad- 
mitted into full membership ; from which, if he 
failed, he was informally excluded, and made to 
understand thoroughly that he was so. 



194 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

A method of social entertainment more in 
practice then than now was story-telHng, and 
it was, somehow, one of the greatest of accom- 
pHshments to be able to narrate stories in an 
entertaining way. Exactly why lawyers should 
be addicted to this species of entertainment more 
than votaries of other callings, I cannot see, but 
the fact is nevertheless so, and it seems to have 
been assumed in Lincoln's time that the Eighth 
Circuit was the locality par excellence when en- 
tertainment by story-telling was to be looked for. 

It is probable that Lincoln was never exceeded, 
on the whole, as a story-teller, but he had no 
ambition or pride in this art, nor the slightest 
envy towards any one who vied with him in that 
respect ; indeed, he preferred listening to another 
good story-teller to entertaining in that way him- 
self. And there were other humorists on our 
circuit besides Lincoln ; indeed, fun was the chief 
staple of our leisure hours. 

In some of the courts, the terms occupied two 
or three weeks ; in others, as in Piatt and Cham- 
paign, prior to 1854, they occupied but a day 
or two. There was as little formality in these 
courts as in any other proper ones, and most of 
the civil cases were tried by the court, without 
the intervention of a jury. The first business 
was to charge the grand jury; the next to call 
through the dockets, grant defaults, continuances, 
or orders ; then followed the disposition of crimi- 
nal cases; then civil law cases, and, finally, the 
disposition of the chancery docket. Davis was a 
very prompt and energetic judge, and despatched 
business with great celerity. In the evening, we 
would all assemble in the judge's room and lis- 
ten to stories or talk sense till bedtime; and I 



LAWYER 195 

will venture to say that no coterie of men, thrown 
accidentally together as we were, was more har- 
monious or engendered more sincere and gener- 
ous friendships than ours. Lincoln was the most 
noted of our circle ; Swett scarcely less so ; then 
Oliver L. Davis, Oscar F. Harmon, and Judge 
Terry, of Danville ; Lawrence Weldon and James 
B. McKinley, of Clinton; Amzi McWilliams, 
William W. Orme, John M. Scott, Asahel Grid- 
ley and Ward H. Lamon, of Bloomington ; and 
General Linder and O. B. Ficklin, of Charleston. 
From Indiana there used to come, partly on busi- 
ness, but chiefly for pleasure, Dan Mace and Jim 
Wilson, from Lafayette; Ned Hannegan, Dan 
Voorhees, and Joe Ristine, from Covington ; and 
John P. Usher and Dick Thompson, from Terre 
Haute. 

I have known of ten of us riding all day in 
one vehicle, and singing over half the way, and 
listening to jokes from our clowns, of whom we 
had several, the other half the journey. "When 
I lived 'way down in Ole Virginny," was our 
favorite song for two or three terms. We knew 
only a stanza and a half, but we sung these over 
and over again. Lincoln made no attempt to 
sing; he would do nothing and attempt nothing 
he could not do well. I never knew Lincoln to 
make ''a fool of himself" at anything; never 
knew of his making a fiasco in telling a story, or 
anything else. If any one wanted to quarrel with 
him in court or out, which was rare, Lincoln 
never backed down. Swett used to "log roll" 
(as he called it) for business on the circuit; Lin- 
coln never. And there was this peculiarity about 
his practice, that, although he was a poor lawyer 
in the sense of knowing the technical and con- 



196 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

Crete law, yet I never saw him discomfited or 
disgraced in court. He was a genius of affairs 
in the courthouse, as well as on the circuit. His 
tenderness and humanity cropped out on the cir- 
cuit as it did at the White House. An old farmer 
named Van Atta (as I remember it) took a lot 
of sheep to winter on shares, fed his entire spare 
crop to them, and they all died in the spring, 
when the sheep-owner sued for the loss of the 
sheep. Lincoln and I defended. The first trial 
was a mistrial and we had a second ; the costs 
amounted to $700. We were defeated, and our 
client had a large judgment to pay, which took 
nearly all he had. Although a man nearly sev- 
enty, he started West, where he could find cheap 
land and found a new home. When he bade us 
good-bye, Lincoln was affected almost to the 
point of tears. 

Whenever Mr. Lincoln took up a case on 
the circuit of any intricacy, if there v/as time 
to make research, he would counsel sufficiently 
with his client and joint counsel to ascertain all 
that could be learned ; then would examine to see 
if the statute was likely to contain anything bear- 
ing on the subject; then he would seclude him- 
self .and formulate the whole case, in all its de- 
tails, into concrete plan and harmony, and un- 
less it was essential that we should know his con- 
clusions, we would first learn his news when the 
trial came on. When I was new to the bar, I 
was trying to keep some evidence out, and was 
getting along very well with the court, when 
Lincoln sung out : 'T reckon it would be fair to 
let that in." It sounded treasonable, but I had 
to get used to this eccentricity. He made no at- 
tempt to gain favor by cajolery. He made no 



LAWYER 197 

apologies. If any one got mad at him, he must 
get pleased again in his own way ; Lincoln would 
never seek a reconciliation. The judge told me 
he never saw Lincoln angry at poor accommo- 
dations on the circuit but once. They arrived at 
Charleston on a cold, wet afternoon, chilled 
through and uncomfortable; the landlord was 
away; there were no fires nor wood. Lincoln 
was thoroughly incensed ; he threw off his coat, 
went to the wood-pile, and cut wood with an 
axe for an hour. Davis built a fire, and when 
the landlord made his appearance late, Lincoln 
gave him a good scoring. His favorite attitude 
in the room while telling stories was standing up 
with his back to the fire; it gave him a good 
chance to gesticulate. If the weather would ad- 
mit, his favorite place for consultation with a 
client was at the foot of a tree. I have seen him 
seated on his haunches, counselling with one or 
more clients. Unless the case was very intricate, 
he w^ould master all the facts without a note or 
reference. If a case was on hand for more than 
one term, he would recollect the details from 
term to term, without omitting one. The first 
chancery case I had was a boys case, for I filed 
a bill for a mortgagee to compel the mortgagor 
to insure the mortgaged property. I applied to 
Lincoln for neighborly help, and he puzzled over 
it, but couldn't decide at first whether the bill 
was good or not; finally, Somers, however, cut 
the Gordian knot in a minute, by handing the bill 
to the judge, saying: "Jedge, won't you look over 
this bill and see if there is any equity in it?" 
The judge was prompt, if Lincoln was not; he 
held the bill to be worthless. 

In the early days on the circuit, nearly all 



198 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

things were as primitive as was consonant with 
the reign and rule of civiHzation ; the taverns 
were of the old-fashioned, ''high-post" bedstead 
order; the best rooms were assigned to the judge 
and his coterie of lawyers, and these, except in 
case of Davis, who tipped the scale at three hun- 
dred, slept two in a bed, and sometimes he had 
to take a lean bedfellow. At each semi-annual 
session of court, a general housecleaning and 
turning over was had ; the sheriff, clerk, and lo- 
cal attorneys resorted to the semi-annual drawer 
or closet and arrayed themselves in the disguise 
of clean, "biled" shirts and good clothes, the 
creases of the store shelf yet patent. The rude 
courthouse benches were dusted, the floor swept 
and doused with many buckets of water, fires 
were lit, the neglected water-pitcher was replen- 
ished ; and quires of foolscap and quill pens were 
placed upon the jackknife-indented tables. Little 
knots of country statesmen, attired in their 
best jeans suits, met in the courtroom, yard, or 
sidewalks, and in the county offices, and dis- 
cussed everything from the Crimean War or the 
California gold diggings to the newest seed- 
wheat or Lincoln's latest joke. 

Veteran lawyers met their constituents with a 
lofty and condescending air of mock or strained 
dignity, which the latter appreciated at more 
than its value, and young lawyers, resplendent in 
ill-fitting suits of creased store clothes and stand- 
up collars that chafed their ears at every turn 
of the head, affected a courage not well based, 
and made ostentatious display of judicial paper 
which had no office except to exhibit the mock 
substance of business hoped for, the evidence 
of retainers not yet seen. When the court 



LAWYER 199 

would actually arrive, there would be a hurryin' 
and a sciirryin/ in the courthouse and vicinity. 

The judge would march in pomp from the 
tavern, attended by such of the court loungers 
as had sufficient ''gall" to obtrude themselves 
upon him ; the lawyers would gather with their 
little dockets, and, mayhap, their law books too; 
the clerk would carry up the court archives in 
a little hair trunk ; the bailiff would bring up the 
stone water jug full cool and flowing, unless he 
should forget it, as he seems to have done at 
Piatt one term. 'Tf the Court please," said 
State's Attorney Campbell, holding up a partly 
filled pitcher suggestive of antiquity and neglect ; 
"is this the same water left over from last term ?" 
The sovereigns would gather in, each ready and 
proud to perform his allotted mission as juror, 
witness, party, or looker-on. ''Mr. Sheriff, open 
court," was ordered perfunctorily. "O yes ! O 
yes ! ! the circuit court is now open for the de- 
spatch of business," the sheriff would ejaculate 
in a quavering voice. "Mr. Sheriff, send out- 
doors and move that peddler away from the 
square," might be the next order. "Mr. Clerk, 
call up the grand jury"; and from that time, it 
might be said, opus fervet. The grand jury 
would be charged and sent to their room ; the 
docket would be called through, and many cases 
disposed of in some summary way ; and by the 
time of adjournment, the work of the session 
would be well outlined. 

The charm which invested the life on the Eighth 
Circuit in the mind and fancy of Mr. Lincoln 
yet lingered there, even in the most responsible 
and glorious days of his administration; over 
and over again has the great President stolen an 



200 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

hour or a few minutes from his life of anxious 
care to Hve over again those bygone exhilarat- 
ing and halcyon days in brief epitome, with 
Swett or me as the purveyor or historian of the 
bright reminiscences. Lincoln could not resist 
the influence of association, as was demonstrated 
when he cast policy, statecraft, and proper ad- 
ministration to the winds in behalf of sentiment, 
and appointed David Davis to the high office of 
Supreme Judge, simply because he was the ex- 
ponent of that period of bright and auroral 
reminiscences, his Life on the Eighth Judicial 
Circuit. 



CHAPTER XI 
Lincoln's religion 

'Abraham Lincoln, who in the years of his 
adolescence was extremely latitudinarian in his 
religious beliefs, when entrusted with the mission 
of greatest import to humanity ever confided to 
man since Moses the lawgiver, became fully rec- 
onciled to the essential truths of Christianity. 

Joshua Fry Speed, the most intimate and un- 
selfish friend that Mr. Lincoln ever had, said : 
''When I knew him [Lincoln] in early life, he 
was a sceptic. He had tried hard to be a be- 
liever, but his reason could not grasp and solve 
the great problem of redemption as taught. He 
was very cautious never to give expression to 
any thought or sentiment that would grate 
harshly upon a Christian's ear. For a sincere 
Christian he had a great respect. He often said 
that the most ambitious man might live to see 
every hope fail, but no Christian could live to see 
his fail because fulfilment could come only when 
life ended. But this was a subject we never dis- 
cussed. The only evidence I have of any change 
was in the summer before he was killed. I was 
invited out to the Soldiers' Home to spend the 
night. As I entered the room, near night, he 
was sitting near a window, intently reading his 
Bible. Approaching him I said : T am glad to 
see you so profitably engaged.' 'Yes,' said he, 

20I 



202 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

^I am profitably engaged.' 'Well,' said I, 'if you 
have recovered from your scepticism, I am sorry 
to say that I have not.' Looking me earnestly in 
the face, and placing his hand upon my shoulder, 
he said : 'You are wrong. Speed ; take all of 
THIS Book upon reason that you can, and 

THE BALANCE ON FAITH, AND YOU WILL LIVE AND 
DIE A HAPPIER AND BETTER MAN.' " 

Judge Gillespie of Edwardsville, 111. (the same 
who jumped out of the window of the Legisla- 
ture with Lincoln), says: "I asked him [Lin- 
coln] once what was to be done with the South 
after the Rebellion was put down. He said some 
thought their heads ought to come off ; 'but,' said 
he, 'if it was left to me, I could not tell where to 
draw the Hne between those whose heads should 
come off and those whose heads should stay on.' 
He said that he had been recently reading the 
history of the rebellion of Absalom, and that he 
inclined to adopt the views of David. 'When 
David was fleeing from Jerusalem, Shimei 
cursed him. After the Rebellion was put down, 
Shimei craved a pardon. Abishai, David's 
nephew, the son of Zeruiah, David's sister, said : 
"This man ought not to be pardoned, because 
he cursed the Lord's anointed." David said : 
"What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah, 
that you should this day be adversaries unto me ? 
Know ye that not a man shall be put to death in 
Israel." ' " 

Mr. Lincoln's early religious views conformed, 
not to dogmas and creeds, but to the religion of 
humanity. Of Sabbaths, when his parents would 
be at church, he would hold a simple religious 
service at home, and would enforce upon his 
small auditory the duty of kindness toward all 



LINCOLN'S RELIGION 203 

animate objects. As he grew to manhood, his 
practical mind discarded all conventional mat- 
ters appertaining to religion, and boldly took is- 
sue with every artificial barrier, mediator, or ap- 
proach which lay between his Maker and man. 
Whether he kept his protest within the strict 
realms of ideal propriety it is needless to inquire ; 
what the great martyr believed in the years of 
his adolescence can have none but speculative in- 
terest. The theories of the untutored mind are 
prone to fallacies, alike in sacred and secular 
things. What he believed as the result of ma- 
turity of intellect, inquiry, suffering, and expe- 
rience is all that is valuable as example. 

While all men are agents of the Deity to en- 
force His will, Mr. Lincoln was the espe- 
cial nuncio and vicegerent of the Deity to execute 
a supernatural mission. So Mr. Lincoln believed, 
and he humbly and reverently accepted the mis- 
sion, and performed it with zeal and fidelity. 

Logically and inevitably, therefore, he believed 
in God ; in His superintending Providence ; in 
His intervention in mundane affairs for the weal 
of the race. To Him he made report ; from Him 
he took counsel ; at His hands he implored cur- 
rent aid ; he ascribed glory and thanks to Him ; 
he recognized Him as the Supreme Good. God 
came to him monitorially ; with succor; with 
good cheer; with victory. He confounded the 
counsels of his accusers ; He made the wrath of 
his enemies to minister to his good; His direct 
intervention the President experienced in many 
ways. Lincoln acknowledged all with a grateful 
heart; he ordered national thanksgivings and 
praises on every suitable occasion; and for some 
reason, clear to Omniscience but inscrutable to 



204 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

us, he was stricken down, as his great prototype 
was at Mount Pisgah, when he came in sight of 
the promised land. Therefore, he had more 
proofs to warrant his belief, and beUeved more 
implicitly in God, and approached nearer to Him, 
than any man of the race since Moses the 
lawgiver. 

In my ''Life on the Circuit with Lincoln/' in an 
elaborate chapter, I make, as I believe, a con- 
clusive argument in favor of Mr. Lincoln's 
claims to be called a Christian, but the proofs 
are so ample and conclusive, unless Mr. Lincoln 
be a trickster in speech, as to leave no excuse for 
any contrary opinion. 

In a brief letter of acceptance of the first Pres- 
idential nomination, Mr. Lincoln implores "the 
assistance of Divine Providence." Again, in his 
farewell address to his neighbors, he also grate- 
fully and reverently placed his reliance on Provi- 
dence, and invoked the prayers of his neighbors 
upon his mission, and in several of his speeches 
en route to the Capitol, he recognized the power 
and mercy of God. 

In his Inaugural Address, he says : *'Intelli- 
gence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reli- 
ance on Him who has never yet forsaken this 
favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the 
best way, all our present difficulty." The closing 
sentence of his first Message to Congress was 
thus : ''And . . . without guile and with pure 
purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go 
forward without fear, and with manly hearts." 

He opens his first regular message to Congress 
by expressing gratitude to God, and closes by 
expressing reliance on Him. And in a special 
message to Congress on March 6, 1862, he says : 



LINCOLN'S RELIGION 205 

*'In view of my great responsibility to my God 
and my country," etc. 

His fourth and last regular Message bestows 
the profoundest gratitude to Almighty God. 

The second Inaugural is an almost unbroken 
invocation to God for His assistance and succor 
in behalf of our bleeding nation. It contains 
passages (I say it without irreverence) which 
approach the Divine Sermon on the Mount for 
moral sublimity and supreme elevation of 
thought as closely as a merely human document 
can do it. It is, in my judgment, the most sub- 
lime of Mr. Lincoln's utterances. I think it 
exceeds even the Gettysburg speech. It is, and 
will ever remain, a sacred classic. 

In the general exultation which followed the 
surrender of Lee, the President said: "He from 
whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten." 

And a call for a National Thanksgiving was 
being prepared when he was stricken down. 

I have thus presented but a small part of the 
documents and sayings in which Mr. Lincoln 
recognized, praised, and relied on the Almighty. 
He seemed to act as if He was present, exercis- 
ing a personal supervision over our affairs, and 
in every way, and upon all proper occasions, he 
recognizes and attests his gratitude to Him for 
mercies and providences, and humbly receives 
blows from His chastening hand. 

The proper Christianity of such a man cannot 
be questioned. The President once said : "When 
any church will inscribe over its altar as its sole 
qualification for membership, the Saviour's con- 
densed statement of the substance of both law 
and gospel, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with 



2o6 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself/ that 
church will I join with all my heart and all my 
soul." 

Then his absolute mxorality, purity of life, 
beneficence of conduct, abounding charity, and 
the catholicity of his love of his kind, must inure 
to his infinite credit. No ruler of a republic 
ever had so much power; none ever employed 
it so tenderly, so benevolently, so mercifully. No 
man ever saved so many human lives by the 
pulsations of his kindly heart; no power save 
the Almighty ever used the power of pardon so 
graciously and benignly; no man ever dried the 
mourners' tears, assuaged grief of stricken ones, 
restored the condemned to life and hope, to such 
an extent, and with such a sympathetic soul as 
he. His succor was almost Divine in essence, 
and gracious and gentle as the dews of Heaven 
in manner. 

More than any other man in modern life, he 
completely fulfilled the requirement, and justified 
the asseveration, of James, the brother of our 
Lord, that ''pure religion and undefiled before 
God and the Father is this. To visit the father- 
less and widows in their affliction, and to keep 
himself unspotted from the world." 

Mr. Lincoln was an extremely sad and melan- 
choly man; at times this sadness was laid aside 
for an hour, and he felt really blithe and jocund; 
but his feelings gravitated and tended to the som- 
bre, mystical, and melancholy. In the realms of 
his diseased fancy, the heavens were always 
hung in funereal black. He was prone to fits 
of weird abstraction, and enveloped in an atmos- 
phere of morbid reverie ; he lived largely in un- 
seen realms, communed often with invisible 



LINCOLN'S RELIGION 207 

spirits, and talked with a personal God. Al- 
though in apparent opposition to his tendencies 
to fatalism, he yet believed in the direct interven- 
tion of God in our national affairs, and he fre- 
quently used to ask Him in a direct, manly way 
to grant this boon, avert that disaster, or advise 
him what to do in a given contingency. "The 
Mystics," says Murdock, ''profess a pure, sub- 
lime, and perfect devotion, wholly disinterested, 
and maintain that in calm and holy contempla- 
tion, they have direct intelligence with the Divine 
Spirit, and acquire a knowledge of Divine things 
which is unattainable by the reasoning faculty." 
In religion, Lincoln was in essence a mystic, and 
all his adoration was in accordance with the 
tenets of that order. 



CHAPTER XII 
Lincoln's mental and moral natures 

Mr. Lincoln's intellectual and moral natures 
were blended and harmonious, nor could any line 
of cleavage be discerned between them ; his moral 
honesty and intellectual honesty were one and 
the same; and I defy the ages to discover the 
ratio in which the moral and intellectual ele- 
ments commingled in his daring deeds of 
statesmanship. The greatest trophies were, in- 
deed, moral achievements, but they had an intel- 
lectual framework and fibre. But he was not 
born great; contrariwise, he was defective, in- 
harmonious, and unassimilated ; anatomically, he 
was disproportioned and unsymmetrical ; physi- 
ologically, he was both organically and patholog- 
ically deficient; phrenologically, he was without 
emphasis in the region consecrated to the logical 
and reasoning faculties. Only the deep and 
earnest reflection indicated by his sad eyes is in 
harmony with his intellectual trophies. 

These views are confirmed alike by his youth- 
ful tendencies, and by what, for want of a more 
appropriate name, I may call his literary produc- 
tions, between the ages of fourteen and twenty- 
eight ; for there is no embryonic or assured great- 
ness there apparent. Nor was greatness ever 
thrust upon him, as is obvious, upon the most 
superficial view. By sheer force of political en- 
208 



MENTAL AND MORAL NATURES 209 

terprise and intellectual energy, he conquered an 
honored place in the political forum, and by the 
display of wisdom, ethics, and strength, he 
achieved a venerated name in the gallery of the 
immortals. Therefore, I think he achieved great- 
ness; but in the mystery of his being can its 
genesis be portrayed? 

His scholastic education, as he distinctly told 
Swett, was limited to four months' tuition of un- 
lettered masters in log schoolhouses, yet his lit- 
erary performances have the technique of a 
rhetorician ; and while his modes of expression 
are original, bizarre, and inverted, they are never 
extravagant or meretricious, but frequently glis- 
ten with the sublime and beautiful, and attain to 
the heights of the classical. 

His coarse texture and homely exterior style 
and address betray his primitive and wilderness 
extraction, but the absence of the petty vices and 
gross habits incident to the frontier gives assu- 
rance of psychological refinement ; and the wide 
compass, intense energy, and deep profundity of 
his mind are attested by the range and diversity 
of his achievements, of which the wild "Chron- 
icles of Reuben" and the second Inaugural are 
extremes of the chronological and intellectual 
span. 

This marvellous, if not, indeed, miraculous, 
progress could not, according to human expe- 
rience, have been wholly achieved by orderly evo- 
lution ; it would seem as if he underwent a men- 
tal metamorphosis. In the coarse ^'Chronicles of 
Reuben," or even the more dignified products of 
the obscure nebulce of his youthful aspirations, 
one found no promise of the "Cooper Institute" 
speech or germ of his Inaugurals ; but his 



2IO LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

speeches and state papers, commencing in 1854, 
and continuing until the end, each and all attest 
the master workman, and not the apprentice, in 
politics and statesmanship. After he was fully 
invested with the responsibilities of state, 
charged with the awful burden and heart-rending 
sorrows of an internecine war, and was encom- 
passed by ''the fierce light that beats upon the 
throne," the contrasts between the apparent man 
as a man, and the undisguised ruler, were em- 
phasized. So far as method was concerned, he 
exhibited no ostentation ; but so far as principles 
and official policy were concerned — the chart, so 
to speak, by which he sailed — he was as unyield- 
ing and implacable as fate, whose agent he was, 
and none could mistake the fundamental ideas 
which he enforced. 

In these matters he 'Svore his heart upon his 
sleeve," and the historian and biographer has no 
biographical or ethical surprises to record, for 
certainly nothing in history could be more sim- 
ple than his ethics and philosophy. ''Slavery is 
founded in the selfishness of man's nature ; oppo- 
sition to it in his love of justice." "Much as I 
hate slavery, I would consent to its extension, 
rather than see the Union dissolved." "I would 
save the Union ; I would save in the shortest 
way under the Constitution; . . . if I could 
save the Union without freeing any slave I would 
do it; if I could do it by freeing all the slaves, 
I would do it; if I could free it by freeing some 
and leaving others alone, I would also do that." 
"The question whether slavery is wrong depends 
upon whether or not the negro is a man." "The 
negress is not my equal in color, and perhaps 
in other respects, but in the right to eat the bread 



MENTAL AND MORAL NATURES 211 

which her own hand has earned, she is my equal, 
and the equal of everybody else." "If slavery 
is not wrong-, nothing is wrong." "He who 
would be no slave, must have no slave." "They 
who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for 
themselves." "Labor is prior to, and independ- 
ent of, capital, and deserves the higher consid- 
eration," "The soldier risks his hfe, and fre- 
quently yields it up, for his country; to the sol- 
dier, therefore, belongs the highest honor," etc. 

And because his philosophy and modes of ex- 
pressing it are so simple and unadorned, superfi- 
cial minds are apt to consider that his character 
may be readily analyzed. Such, however, is not 
the fact. The twenty-six alphabetical letters, 
the nine numerical digits, and the algebraic and 
geometrical symbols are, indeed, simple, like Lin- 
coln's apothegms; but from the former are 
formed theorems and problems in mathematics, 
philosophy, and metaphysics, which task and con- 
found genius, and from the latter were deduced 
concrete political principles which millions of 
men in arms assailed, and other millions with 
shot, shell, and gleaming steel defended. 

In the practical application of principles to ac- 
tual administration, Lincoln was handicapped by 
the inharmony and conflict of opposing interests, 
and, although not impervious to the charge of 
affirmative dissimulation, he, nevertheless, be- 
neath the mask and disguise of listlessness, hu- 
mor, simplicity, and guilelessness, concealed the 
wiles and artifice of finesse and sagacity. He 
observed frankness, candor, and ingenuous- 
ness in his dealings with men, and when honor 
and integrity were involved, conformed rigidly to 
their monitions, but he was conventionally, prac- 



212 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

tically, and by stress of circumstances a politi- 
cian. He believed in drawing- party lines and in 
enforcing party discipline. When Buchanan was 
removing Douglas's friends from office, Lincoln 
told me the former was right in putting in office 
those who conformed to his views, and that he 
would have done the same in Buchanan's place. 

His awkwardness of manner, heartiness of 
welcome, promises, and direct statements were 
genuine; his dissimulation was never express or 
affirmative, but always negative, implied, and 
utilitarian. He would listen to matters and not 
agree with the narrator, but with no symptoms of 
impatience or displeasure. He would frequently 
launch out or lapse into inappropriate and fatu- 
ous themes in order to evade or neutralize those 
which were mal apropos or mischievous, and so 
interpose the President's jester as a shield or foil 
to an inapposite or undesired interview with the 
responsible President himself. These by-plays of 
diplomacy served a needed purpose, and met a 
current emergency, but did not add to the fame 
or dignity of its possessor. Superficial men who 
met him on these terms, judged him by the osten- 
sible act, and not by its occult force or ultimate 
results, and either ascribed to him the tame attri- 
butes of the commonplace and prosaic, or dis- 
paraged his great qualities and exploitations by 
ascribing to them no higher qualities than a 
cheap attribute of vapid and insipid goodness. 

A recent astute critic says that ''the preemi- 
nently striking feature in Lincoln's nature was 
the extraordinary degree in which he always 
seemed to be in close and sympathetic touch with 
the people — that is to say, the people in the mass 
wherein he was imbedded, the social body amid 



MENTAL AND MORAL NATURES 213 

which he dwelt, which pressed upon him on all 
sides, which for him formed the public. First, 
this group or body was only the population of 
the frontier settlement; then it widened to in- 
clude the State of Illinois ; then it expanded to 
include the entire North." This propensity has 
been noted by many observers, and is thus stated 
by Bancroft: **As a child in a dark night, on a 
rugged way, catches hold of the hand of its fa- 
ther for guidance and support, he clung fast to 
the hand of the people, and moved calmly 
through the gloom." 

In contemplating the methods by which he 
kept en rapport with the people, there are a logic 
and harmony, a consistency of aim and an adap- 
tation of means to end, that it would be an abuse 
of common sense to call fortuitous. 

The popularity which he had acquired by mus- 
cular arts, he retained and extended over a wider 
and more highly cultivated area by intellectual 
prowess, and his force of dialectics had sufficient 
momentum to reach all peoples who prized lib- 
erty as a jewel. At a later period, when the fate 
of democracy depended on his correct and heroic 
performance of high moral exploitations, he rose 
to the dignity and demands of the occasion, and, 
however exalted his mental achievements, they 
were outclassed by trophies of moral exploita- 
tion, albeit there was an intellectual fibre running 
through the series. 

But exterior, logical, and visible agencies de- 
fined only the starting-point of his matchless ca- 
reer; the film of sorrow and bereavement which 
glazed his eyes at the death-bed of Nancy Hanks 
Lincoln was never effaced, and the mystic cords 
of memory and sympathy which stretched from 



214 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

the neglected grave in the unkempt furze and 
deep, tangled wildwood to the sad heart of the 
bereaved boy were constant in their tension, im- 
pelling him in all efforts that were noble and 
heroic toward all results that were good and 
true. 

Mr. Lincoln's character might be defined as a 
combination of many antitheses; some obvious, 
some perplexing, others occult. The extreme 
simplicity and profound secrecy of his methods 
of administration, and the daring of his enter- 
prises and magnitude of his achievements, pre- 
sented the widest contrasts, and provoked illib- 
eral criticism. 

It is singular to reflect that the ''Conway 
Cabal" was organized by some of the best men 
of the nation, to destroy Washington in the hey- 
day of his usefulness, and that the "Wade and 
Davis" intrigue was inaugurated to relegate the 
great Emancipator to private life just after he 
had "proclaimed liberty throughout the land, to 
all the inhabitants thereof." It is instructive to 
the historical student to trace the serpentine line 
which defined the formative public opinion of 
Mr. Lincoln during his administration ; the pro- 
slavery coteries would alternate with the radical 
Abolitionists in praise and censure ; while the 
several personal followings would do the same ; 
and in pursuing a just, constant, and necessary 
course, he at one era trenched upon, and at an- 
other ministered to, the prejudices of all. 

Intimately connected with the disparity be- 
tween methods and results was Mr. Lincoln's 
profound and impenetrable reticence. With al- 
most prophetic vision, he foresaw crises in our 
National affairs in advance of the general view, 



MENTAL AND MORAL NATURES 215 

and bore the woes of the nation vicariously in 
advance, but shared the burden with none ; and 
of the many sad scenes presented by the unholy 
rebellion, none was more melancholy than the 
spectacle of this august victim expiating in 
silence and without complaint the great National 
sin, of which he was guiltless. 

While a majority of his supporters were quick 
to discern in Emancipation a righteous act and 
one essential to the autonomy of the adminis- 
tration, the border States were equally clear that 
its adoption would be the knell of the cause, and 
Mr. Lincoln was the first to discern its porten- 
tous shadow advancing as an imperious necessity 
to National salvation. In the solitude of self- 
introspection he formulated plans of emancipa- 
tion and wrought out the details, carefully avoid- 
ing offence in all places and modes where it 
might prove fatal to the cause of the Union. His 
policy about provisioning Sumter was similar; 
while giving no sign and apparently bestow- 
ing none but perfunctory thought upon this mo- 
mentous matter, he was, in fact, secretly but most 
anxiously devising proper means to do it at the 
apposite time. Other instances will readily oc- 
cur, as the surrender of Slidell and Mason, the 
reinstatement of McClellan, his veto of the Con- 
fiscation Act, refusal to arm negroes, etc. For 
all these and other matters he gave no premo- 
nition or sign of a parturition of mighty events, 
but proclaimed them in the least startling and 
most undramatic mode practicable to efficiency. 

His modes of thought, speech, and action were 
sui generis. He imitated nobody; his manners 
were hearty, honest, and sincere, and no one had 
any distrust of affirmative deceit or latent treach- 



2i6 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

ery. In social and personal democracy he was 
like Jefferson or Jackson, but, unlike those great 
leaders, he possessed the crowning virtue of 
magnanimity, and he administered his great trust 
''with malice toward none, with charity for all." 

His companions on the circuit were as prone 
to be the unconventional and the unpolished as 
the polite and genteel; to his apprehension, that 
part of the man composed of wool, fur, leather, 
and bear's-grease was unnoted, the soul and ethi- 
cal tendencies alone made the man. He practised 
himself, and appreciated in others, cordial, 
homely, and unrestrained manhood, and dis- 
dained the vacuity of mock gentility, and the 
inanity and hypocrisy of vain and empty deport- 
ment. Benevolence and conscientiousness, cau- 
sality, order, and association of ideas abounded in 
his character; and his concrete ethics, political 
philosophy, and responsible administration were 
drawn from these. 

Abstractly, he desired to be thoroughly logical 
and consistent in his honesty; concretely, he was 
as effectively so as propriety and expediency au- 
thorized. He would as lieve break into a man's 
house and despoil the owner of his goods as to 
secure the same result through the medium of an 
unjust lawsuit. To acquire values by malprac- 
tice or by unjust and inequitable action in court, 
by flat perjury or by larceny, were aHke in es- 
sence to him. The form of the mal-appropria- 
tion was of no consequence, nor was he deluded 
by ornate names or euphemistic titles ; dishonesty 
was dishonesty to him, whether it was concealed 
in the burglar's kit, the "dicer's oath," or the 
lawyer's sophistical speech. But his honesty was 
more essential and abstruse than this ; for it was 



MENTAL AND MORAL NATURES 217 

equally an attribute of his intellect and con- 
science ; and he was, with equal intensity, materi- 
ally, morally, and mentally honest. But he was 
not fanatical, bigoted, or dominated with one 
idea ; he strove for the most wholesome and utili- 
tarian results, even in the observance of honesty. 
Thus, he believed it was radically dishonest to 
hold slaves in bondage, but he also knew that our 
National life was founded and vouchsafed by a 
contract to hold them thus ; and by the latter con- 
tract he abided, even to the extent of restoring 
fugitive slaves, as embracing the higher ethics 
and utility. 

He believed that nature was as logical and har- 
monious in the moral, as in the material, world, 
and that the interrelation between cause and ef- 
fect was as unerring in one case as in the other. 
''Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
reap" was, to him, alike a practical truth and a 
Divine law. 

He said to Herndon : ''There are no accidents 
in my philosophy; the past is the cause of the 
present, and the present is the cause of the fu- 
ture ; all these are links in the endless chain, 
stretching from the finite to the infinite." 

Lincoln's logical tendencies were indigenous. 
He had no tutor; he learned nothing from 
schools, academies, or professors. His inductive 
methods came wholly by self-introspection ; and 
like an acorn, which comprises within itself not 
only the oak in embryo, but also the form of 
structure and development, his mind comprised 
within itself not only the potential President and 
Emancipator, but equally the mechanism and 
motor of growth and development to that sub- 
lime destiny. 



2i8 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

According to Lincoln's philosophy, affairs in 
the moral world should approximate to the cer- 
tainty of affairs in the material world. If clients 
had good sense and perfect integrity, and law- 
yers complete knowledge and sterling honesty, 
there would be no lawsuits ; if people led orderly 
and well-appointed lives, sorrow would be re- 
duced to the inevitable; if philosophers, states- 
men, and rulers were wise and upright, the his- 
tory of mankind would not be a melancholy retro- 
spect of wars, violence, and passion; and as a 
political casuist or law advocate, he deemed it 
to be his duty to bring to his subject the force of 
demonstration as completely as the environments 
of moral questions would allow. 

Sound principle to him was like a man in per- 
fect health ; a proposition in which fallacies were 
inherent was like a body full of humors, or a 
man with a broken leg. He introduced no fal- 
lacy in his own creations ; he suffered none to 
go without detection in his opponents ; he was a 
practical, and in no sense a speculative, phi- 
losopher. 

He contemned the historical argument about 
slavery, either as a word or shield. His abstract 
argument was like this : "Whether slavery is or 
is not wrong, depends upon whether the negro 
is or is not a man; to admit that the negro is a 
man is also to concede that his slavery is wrong." 
His concrete argument was like this : ''While a 
negress may not be my equal in everything, in 
the right to eat the bread which her own hand 
has earned, she is my equal, and the equal of 
every one else.'' 

A moment's reflection will render conclusive 
the view that these arguments are based on a 



MENTAL 'AND MORAL NATURES 219 

solid foundation, and that the only ways to con- 
found those arguments would be, in the first case, 
to establish the proposition that the negro is one 
of the lower animals, as the horse or the hog, 
and in the second place that the strong has a 
right to steal from the weak. 

Thus it is apparent that the springs of his hon- 
esty and integrity of purpose welled up from his 
intellect, and that his conscience v^as not a deri- 
vation from either the fear of retribution, or from 
pride of character; but was rather a product 
of logical perception and the eternal fitness of 
things. He knew that if he introduced alcohol or 
tobacco into the fine tissues of his system, evil 
consequences would ensue ; he equally knew that 
if he harbored a fallacy in his meditations or 
practices, a disconnected and fallacious conclu- 
sion would be inevitable. As early as in 1849, 
at least, he reahzed (though he did not act in 
unison with the belief) that the retributive jus- 
tice of God awaited this nation for the awful sin 
of chattel slavery. It is equally certain, and well 
attested from many statements made in his state 
papers and elsewhere, that he also recognized a 
consecutive order and method in the interven- 
tion of Deity in the affairs of men, and that it 
was the duty of the moralist to grope deep and 
search for the ultimate solution of all moral 
problems. One of his favorite expressions was : 

There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough-hew them how we may. 

And this seems to have conveyed to him a deeper 
meaning than a merely trite proverb. He be- 
lieved that all human actions were the result of 
motives, and that the basis of motive was self- 



2 20 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

ishness ; utility was his crucial test ; be had no 
faith in disinterestedness, not even in his 
charities. 

Lincoln had a remarkable faculty of abstrac- 
tion from the cares and ills of life ; ofttimes he 
had an absent, "far-away" look, the same, I infer, 
that was attributed to his mother. 

When he was running for the Presidency in 
i860, I attended the great mass-meeting at 
Springfield, and going directly to his house, 
found him in the front yard watching the pro- 
cession, which was then already passing, shook 
hands with him, and spoke briefly. 

An hour later I returned and introduced a 
friend. After speaking to the newcomer, he 
seized me by the hand, and gazing at me pecu- 
liarly, said : ''Whitney, I've not had hold of your 
hand before." I corrected him, and he gazed at 
me with a dazed look, and said hesitatingly : 
*'No ! Fve not seen you before to-day." His 
mind was absent at our former greeting. 

In his social conversation on serious matters, 
and in his forensic and political speeches, he 
never made use of anecdotes. Biographers state 
it otherwise. It results from lack of familiarity 
with their subject; knowing of his anecdotal pro- 
pensity in his hours of ease, they erroneously 
reason that the propensity must be universal in 
his practices, and that 

His mouth he could not ope 
But out there flew a trope ; 

and so it was in his pastime, but not in his busi- 
ness. The sober, practical, business Lincoln and 
the ''madcap" wag Lincoln were two totally dif- 
ferent and widely contrasted persons. In what 



MENTAL AND MORAL NATURES 221 

political speech of his, and there are many ex- 
tant, can a single anecdote be found? 

In his business matters he was the incarnation 
of logic and adaptation; in his life in deshabille, 
he was the incarnation of humor. 

He thought as a sage, though he felt as a man. 

Although Mr. Lincoln was often frivolous 
in expression, he always was dignified in char- 
acter. And there was this peculiarity about Mr. 
Lincoln's pleasantry, that it involved no idea of 
contempt or degradation. A sense of superiority 
and dignity always attended him; the humorist 
in his nature was evanescent and temporary ; the 
man of power, dignity, and responsibility was in 
abeyance for limited occasions. While he ex- 
celled all men as a humorist, this preeminence 
gratified no ambition. That his humor ofttimes 
was forced and simulated was palpable. 

Replying to an impatient exclamation of 
George Ashmun over one of Lincoln's jokes, the 
President said : **I know you to be an earnest, 
true man, but if I could not find a vent for my 
feelings in this way, I should die." 

I have often been asked by scholarly and 
intellectual men who had never seen Mr. Lincoln, 
such questions as these : *'How did Mr. Lincoln 
strike you at first view ?" or "How did he impress 
you?" "What was his bearing?" etc., etc. My 
general reply to all such questions is that he al- 
ways impressed me as commonplace and infor- 
mal in all externals, but noble and dignified in all 
the essentials of conduct and aflPairs ; that noth- 
ing in intercourse of any sort v/ith him savored 
of meanness, insincerity, a craven or timid spirit, 
irresolution, "backing dov^^n," littleness, vulgar- 



22 3 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

ity, or any unmanly thing or quality. He never 
obtruded advice, aid, or sympathy, but was ready 
with either if requested, to those he approved, 
but not to such as he did not approve. His sym- 
pathy was not exuberant or demonstrative, nor 
yet active, except when he must act as in the 
case of signing death warrants. He was 
not mawkish in his sympathy, but manly 
and robust ; the woman who kneeled to him in the 
exuberance of gratitude for an official favor, it 
will be remembered, was savagely rebuked. He 
was not cynical, sardonic, or sarcastic in company. 
Although he was frequently annoyed, he did not 
betray his feelings, nor did any outward mani- 
festation at the time escape him, unless it bore 
a relation to business or some substantial thing. 
In such case he could cut the Gordian knot with 
facility, either by a humorous anecdote, an 
adroit evasion, or dcfwnright denunciation, if 
needful. 

I have known leaders in society, in whose pres- 
ence one felt always uncomfortable for fear of 
committing some faux pas, but no such restraint 
need be, or was, in fact, felt when Lincoln was 
the social censor; for he required a great social 
license himself, and accorded it as freely to oth- 
ers. Judge Davis may be said to have had a 
school of manners and deportment on the circuit, 
but Lincoln was the court jester with the most 
abundant license. It was difficult to tell by ex- 
terior appearances whom Lincoln really liked 
and whom he did not, except in extreme cases. 
A leading lawyer of Danville told me that Lin- 
coln thoroughly despised him. And I will ven- 
ture to say that of the hundred or more lawyers 
whom Lincoln was thoroughly acquainted with 



MENTAL AND MORAL NATURES 223 

on our circuit, not ten could have shown a sin- 
gle social letter from him; while the letters to 
the few whom he did honor by correspondence 
might be counted by hundreds. Lincoln really 
had but few close friends, and those few he cher- 
ished in his heart of hearts. 

Mr. Lincoln's preeminent greatness lay in the 
combination of the powers of analysis and syn- 
thesis. He could discover and unmask a fallacy 
more completely than any other living man ; and 
he could define a moral, political, or legal issue 
more perspicaciously than any statesman in 
American history. 

In the debates between Lincoln and Douglas 
on the issue of the extension of slavery into free 
territory, the latter made vain attempts to divert 
or obscure the true issue. Because Mr. Lincoln 
deprecated the repeal of the time-honored Mis- 
souri Comxpromise, Douglas sophistically as- 
sumed that he wanted, and that his policy im- 
plied, an abolition of slavery ; social and political 
equality with negroes ; and a making of, and en- 
forcing by, law, of a uniformity of pursuits, prac- 
tices, and social life throughout the Union. 

Those who read Mr. Lincoln's speeches will 
find some of the most brilliant exhibitions of dia- 
lectics in political literature in his untangling of 
the knotted threads of Douglas's fallacious and 
involved statements, made with a view and ani- 
mus to embarrass and confuse. 

Here is shown one of Lincoln's salient points 
of intellectual character : his clear and unimpeded 
view of a controverted subject, and his lucid and 
terse manner and terms of statement. And this 
involves as a corollary his genius for unmasking 
and exposing all fallacious and involved state- 



224 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

ments, thereby dissevering them from the real 
issue. 

In clearness and fehcity of statement, Lincoln 
was like Webster or Jefferson; in remorseless 
logic like John C. Calhoun or John Quincy 
Adams ; in fiery and impetuous denunciation like 
Henry Clay or James G. Blaine. Yet he equalled 
any in cogency and vigor, and exceeded all in 
simplicity and terseness. 

Nothing within the wide range and compass 
of his mental view passed unchallenged; to all 
events, acts, incidents, accidents, phenomena, ob- 
jects of vision and moral propositions, he made 
the highwayman's demand, "stand and deliver." 
Every object presented to his physical or mental 
vision conveyed to him an object lesson; from 
everything actual or phantasmagorial he ex- 
tracted a moral. His apparently indifferent gaze 
comprehended and included every element of the 
object in review; he was an eager student, under 
the mask and disguise of nonchalance and dis- 
simulation; moral objects, which were chaotic 
and heterogeneous to the common view, were 
homogeneous, orderly, and sequent to him. He 
had a most comprehensive association of ideas ; 
while excluding all irrelevant subjects from 
the one under discussion, he included every ele- 
ment that was pertinent, and educed cognate, al- 
lied, and related matters that none but he would 
have discerned. Therefore, he strengthened 
every subject of consideration by including inci- 
dents which none but himself could have thought 
of, as well as by eviscerating those which, though 
passing the ordinary view unchallenged, would 
be halted, arrested, unmasked, and rejected as 
irrelevant by his critical gaze. 



MENTAL AND MORAL NATURES 225 

Such was the strength of Mr. Lincoln's percep- 
tive faculties ; but he was equally pronounced, as 
I have foreshadowed, in his reflective ones. 
Having himself perceived an object clearly in all 
its parts, he joined these parts together by causa- 
tion and comparison, with the result that his 
argument was a composite, logical, and sym- 
metrical whole. 

Mr. Lincoln never went to the extreme limits 
of his mental or fortuitous opportunities ; never 
exhausted his subject; always and in all consid- 
erations suggested and pointed to more than he 
developed, invariably leaving much unsaid. His 
speeches of 1854 on the restoration of the Mis- 
souri Compromise, apparently exhausted the 
''anti-extension of slavery" argument; but his 
speeches of 1856 on the same subject presented 
the same question concretely, according to the 
demands of current history; and his speeches of 
1858 and 1859 demonstrated, by the trend of ac- 
tual events, the correctness of his prior logical 
divination. His last studied and elaborate speech, 
the "Cooper Institute" speech, was his most or- 
nate and most comprehensive historical speech. 
His first Inaugural was still a new presentation 
of the subject, affording many texts for illustra- 
tion and paraphrase. 

He did not contest with opponents or princi- 
ples on or near the borders of debate, took no 
advantage of technicalities or his adversaries' 
mistakes or weakness, ascribed no malign moral 
motives to flagitious political conduct. Consid- 
ering the individual morality of wicked political 
offenders to be none of his concern, he impaled 
such offenders on the spear of political casuistry 
alone, and with the trenchant blade of debate 



226 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

clove in twain pernicious political principles, and 
not their mischievous advocate. 

Thus, from an intellectual standpoint, Mr. Lin- 
coln's forte was that of a dialectic architect or 
builder. Unerringly he constructed from loose 
facts, principles, morals, ethics, and dialectics, a 
complete concrete theory. 

A singular fact connected with Mr. Lincoln is 
that with no clearly apparent logical reason for 
it, he should have conceived a passionate fond- 
ness for the study of geometry. There was noth- 
ing within his ordinary experience to lead or 
even point to this ; he was, it is true, a surveyor, 
but only in a practical application of right angles, 
according to the land office system of Mansfield. 
Evidently his penchant for the study of geometry 
had no correlation with any practical experience 
or speculative fancy, but was a mere interlude, 
with no apparent association or inter-relation 
with his life-drama ; yet, singular to say, Boling- 
broke says : *'Mr. Locke . . . recommends 
the study of geometry, even to those who have 
no design of being geometricians, and he gives a 
reason for it . . . that although such per- 
sons may forget every problem that has been 
proposed, and every solution that they or others 
have given, but the habit of pursuing long trains 
of ideas will remain with them, and they will 
pierce through the mazes of sophism, and dis- 
cover a latent truth, when persons who have not 
this habit will never find it." It may also, in this 
connection, be remarked that Quintilian says : 
''No man, assuredly, can become a perfect orator 
without a knowledge of geometry. It is not with- 
out reason that the greatest men have bestowed 
extreme attention on this science." The ultimate 



MENTAL AND MORAL NATURES 227 

basis of Lincoln's greatness was his marvellous 
capacity for logical deduction, the exhibition of 
which was by his effective and fervid oratory. 
And it would thus appear that he pursued the 
monitions of both Locke and Quintilian, though, 
probably, without knowing of either. 

To Mr. Gulliver, he said that the term ''demon- 
strate" puzzled him while he was a student, and 
that he investigated till he ascertained its mean- 
ing. Whether he sought to acquire the art of 
demonstration by the study of Euclid, or pursued 
that study as an idle fancy or congenial pastime, 
cannot be known, but it is fair to suppose that 
in his evolution from a cornfield logician and log- 
cabin orator to the ratiocination of the joint- 
debate, his study of the six books of Euclid held 
place. 

His honesty was not of negative ethical obliga- 
tion merely, as 'Thou shall not steal," "Thou 
shalt not bear false witness," etc., but was an ac- 
tive vital law of his being, which prompted af- 
firmative performance of duty. He would not 
misstate or conceal a mental conviction or a con- 
scientious scruple when he believed it was his 
duty to make disclosures, or even passively ac- 
quiesce in error, though policy forbade, any more 
than he would misstate a fact. To his apprehen- 
sion, one form of falsehood was as nefarious as 
the other, and the fact that one form might be 
kept concealed while the other was disclosed, was 
not taken into consideration. The form of the 
falsehood made no difference to him, whether it 
was a literal lie, an evasion or suppression of 
the truth, or a mental reservation, when he was 
bound by ideal honor to speak. Thus, in his 
earlier anti-slavery speeches, he deemed it to be 



2 28 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

his duty to avow certain conservative sentiments, 
as his adhesion to the fugitive-slave law, etc., 
and he did it with emphasis, although it was 
grossly against the most relentless prejudices of 
his disciples and seriously injured his political 
standing. The incident of the ''house-divided- 
against-itself" speech illustrates this tendency, as 
well as his moral courage and the good policy of 
honesty in its ultimate effects. The result was, 
as was clearly foreshadowed, that the voters in 
the State who had emigrated from Kentucky and 
Tennessee, and who would have sustained Lin- 
coln as a Whig, were frightened off, and voted 
for the ''Douglas" candidates, and thus defeated 
Lincoln for the Senate. 

This tendency is exhibited in another manner. 
On January 14, 1862, Simon Cameron was 
forced out of the Cabinet by popular odium ; and 
in the succeeding April the House of Representa- 
tives by a large majority passed a resolution of 
censure of some of his official acts. Mr. Lincoln 
was under no especial obligation to shield Cam- 
eron, but he sent a special message to Congress, 
saying: 'T should be wanting in candor and in 
justice if I should leave the censure ... to 
rest . . . upon Mr, Cameron ; . . . not only 
the President but all the other heads of depart- 
ments . . . were, at least, equally responsible 
with him." And it took an heroic man to defend 
anything that Cameron did. 

This same trait was exhibited in a minor way 
in a letter dated July 13, 1863, addressed to Gen- 
eral Grant, in which he says : ''When you turned 
northward ... I feared it was a mistake. I 
now wish to make the personal acknowledgment 
that you were right and I was wrong." To 



MENTAL AND MORAL NATURES 229 

Sherman, on December 26, 1864, he writes : "The 
undertaking [Savannah campaign] being a suc- 
cess, the honor is all yours ; for I beUeve none of 
us went further than to acquiesce." 

And this quality is shown in a much more 
heroic exhibition, by his letter to Joseph Hooker, 
of January 26, 1863, from which I make these 
extracts : ''I have placed you at the head of the 
Army . . . but I think that during [your pred- 
ecessor, General Burnside's] command . . . 
you have . . . thwarted him as much as you 
could, in which you did a great wrong to the 
Country ... I have heard of your recently 
saying that both the Army and the Government 
needed a Dictator. . . . What I now ask of 
you is miHtary success, and I will risk the Dicta- 
torship. ... I much fear that the spirit you 
have aided in infusing into the Army . . . will 
now turn upon you." 

And his contempt for falsehood was as pro- 
nounced as his reverence for the truth, as the fol- 
lowing extract from the joint debate at Jonesboro* 
will show. Douglas said at Joliet, speaking of 
Lincoln, that at Ottawa he "made him tremble 
in his knees so that he had to be carried from 
the platform. He laid up seven days," etc. Lin- 
coln: ". . . there was not a word of truth in 
it." Douglas: "Didn't they carry you off?" 
Lincoln: "There; that question illustrates the 
character of this man Douglas exactly. He says, 
*Didn't they carry you off ?' . . . Yes, they did. 
But, Judge Douglas, why didn^t you tell the 
TRUTH ? . . . And then again : 'He laid up for 
seven days.' He puts that in print for people of 
the country to read as a serious document . . . 
I don't want to call him a iaar, but ... I don't 



230 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

know what else to call him, if I must tell the 
truth out." (All this was of an episode at Ot- 
tawa, where Lincoln's friends were so enthusiastic 
over his speech that they forcibly shouldered him 
and carried him off the ground, to Lincoln's great 
disgust.) 

The term ''honest, " so generally applied to 
Lincoln, was not technical but comprehensive, in- 
cluding- candor, sincerity, single-mindedness, in- 
corruptibility, kindness, morality, and purity, but 
not mawkish sentimentality nor impracticability. 
If he was as harmless as a dove, he also was as 
wise as a serpent, and he employed his wisdom as 
effectually as any wise and strictly honorable 
man would; but the only instances that I ever 
heard raised against him any sort of criticism of 
personal conduct were in cases where the con- 
crete claims of friendship and humanity were in 
conflict with abstract duty, for it was a practical 
belief with him that if he could remove moun- 
tains and had not charity, he was nothing; and 
that the greatest of all virtues was charity. 

In ordinary life Mr. Lincoln was to the end 
inartificial, unsophisticated, and unassimilated. 
No man of his experience ever wore his rusticity 
in its newest gloss and virgin freshness so per- 
sistently. Although his progress in life was not 
devoid of enterprise, yet he could not personate 
or imitate any behavior which was strained or 
artificial. There were candor and honesty even 
in his manners and habits. 

Style and pretensions made no impression on 
him. To him. 



The rank is but the guinea's stamp, 
The man's the gowd for a' that. 



MENTAL AND MORAL NATURES 231 

He wanted no attendance nor restraint, loved 
the largest liberty of all kinds, waited on him- 
self, even to the performance of the most petty 
errands. He never had a clerk, errand-boy, or 
student, of his own will ; he wrote his own law 
pleadings and made them brief ; he never used a 
printed blank in his life; he respectfully listened 
to all advice and rarely, if ever, followed it; he 
kept his own counsels, and asked the fewest 
favors of all kinds of any man of his station. 

Imagine a lawyer and politician of his rank 
going out on the "commons" every evening, 
searching for, driving up, and milking his cow, 
cleaning out his stable, grooming his horse, chop- 
ping and carrying in wood for the kitchen. Yet 
Lincoln did all of these things, not from ostenta- 
tion or eccentricity, but from motives of the 
strictest utility, even on the evening of May 18, 
i860, when the telegraph from Maine to Califor- 
nia, and from Minnesota to Texas, was vocal with 
his name. 

His disinclination to employ a clerk, errand- 
boy, or servant arose from his self-reliance, secre- 
tiveness, and absolute desire to be wholly inde- 
pendent. After he was elected, Mrs. Lincoln pro- 
cured the services of an excellent colored man, 
but Lincoln dispensed with his services when- 
ever he could. At one time, Lincoln and I were 
going on a short railway trip, when the servant 
tried to carry our hand baggage, but Lincoln 
could not relish the idea of a servant following 
him with a slender satchel, so he devised a pro- 
test to get rid of him. 

The only account books he ever kept were 
those he found in the law offices of Judge Logan 
and John T. Stuart; he and Herndon kept none 



232 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

in their partnership. After coming to Spring- 
field, he never went in debt but twice ; once when 
he bought his residence from Mr. Dresser, he 
gave his note for the deferred payment with a 
mortgage on the property as security; again 
when he started to Washington on February ii, 
1861, he borrowed enough to last for necessary 
expenses of his family, till he could acquire a 
month's payment for services. His simplicity in 
financial matters was almost childish. In 1856, 
when he was a ''Fremont" elector-at-large, 
knowing that he paid his own bills on the can- 
vass, I raised the sum of $35 in our county 
when he attended our mass-meeting, and waited 
on him at the hotel, where I gave it to him. I 
recollect his embarrassment; he looked at the 
money and then at the Committee sheepishly. 
''What will I do with it?" said he. "Put it in 
your pocket and keep it there," was the reply. 
He did so, but deemed it necessary to make a 
protest. "Don't you fellows do that again," said 
he humorously. 

On a similar subject, my old and valued friend, 
William D. Somers, Esq., for many years the 
leading lawyer of Champaign County, has sent 
me this anecdote, which illustrates the same trait, 
and which I reproduce in his own words : 

In 1855, George High was confined in the Urbana 
jail under two indictments for horse-stealing. He sent 
for me to call and see him with reference to assisting 
in his defence, some time before the sitting of the 
Court, and intimated his desire that I should associate 
Lincoln with me in his behalf. 

When Lincoln came, as was his custom, to attend 
Court, I went with him to consult our client. We 
found his wife with him in the jail. After consulting 
about the matter of the defence, the subject of our 



MENTAL AND MORAL NATURES 233 

fee came up, when High said he had but $10, 
which he handed to Lincoln. Lincoln, seeing from the 
condition of the wife that she would soon need pecu- 
niary assistance, asked High : "How about your wife, 
will she not need this?" He was answered that she 
would get along somehow. Lincoln then gave her 
$5 of the money, and divided the balance between him- 
self and me, $2.50 to each. 

That, probably, was all he received for de- 
fending the most noted horse-thief in Illinois. 

Lincoln was unexceptionable in his personal 
habits, but careless of his outer dress as to style, 
being sedulous merely to make it go as far as it 
would. His appearance on the circuit was that 
of an niinois farmer visiting town, adorned with 
his second-best clothes. He wore the same suit 
till it was threadbare, and the same hat till its 
nap existed no longer, save as a reminiscence. A 
short blue cloak, quite the style during the Mexi- 
can War (he had acquired it while in Congress), 
and extremely unbecoming to one of his length 
of legs, he wore as long as in 1856. An umbrella, 
originally olive green, but faded to a dingy 
brown, he carried around the circuit for 
ten years ; he had the letters comprising his name 
cut out of domestic and sewed on the inside ; the 
knob was gone when I first knew him. His 
night-dress was a coarse, home-made, yellow 
woollen-flannel gown. His attire cost less than 
that of any man in the State associated with 
others. He had not only no talent to dress well, 
but equally no physique to display dress. He put 
on no style anywhere ; he did not defy or contemn 
fashion or custom, but was oblivious of it. He 
could not have been 

A glass of fashion and a mould of form 



234 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

had he tried; tailors could do little for him. In 
all things he was unique, and not susceptible to 
conventionality or to polish. 

The antithetical character of Mr. Lincoln is 
again illustrated by the wide contrast between his 
exterior and formal guilelessness and simplicity 
of nature, and the depth of Unesse, sagacity, and 
diplomacy which that exterior simplicity masked 
and concealed. He was instinctively a politician 
as well as a statesman ; these several roles are 
not diverse, but the latter is an amplification of 
the former. A politician is a statesman in em- 
bryo, and a statesman is an enlarged politician. 
The campaign of 1858 illustrates this subject. 
While ostensibly it was a contest for a Senator- 
ship, in reality it was the vestibule to the White 
House. That this was so, as far as Douglas was 
concerned, was not disguised, but Lincoln's equal 
design was masked by speech, which, like that 
of Talleyrand, was employed to conceal his 
thoughts. 

That Lincoln understood the occult trend of 
this discussion is clear by many tests. Douglas 
was so incautious as to interrogate Lincoln pub- 
licly. Lincoln seized the golden opportunity thus 
presented to impale his antagonist on one horn 
or the other of a political dilemma, by which he 
must lose either the Senatorship or the Presi- 
dency, and Douglas, in saving his standing at 
home, lost that which he had acquired in the en- 
tire nation. Contrariwise, Lincoln not only pre- 
served his local reputation, but gained a national 
one. He also not only held his party allegiance 
to the Whigs, but gained the allegiance of the 
Abolitionists. He played a consummate political 
game, and played it like a master of the art. He 



MENTAL AND MORAL NATURES 235 

consciously and designedly baited his political 
hook with the Senatorship for the Presidency, 
losing the sprat to catch the herring. 

Mr. Lincoln was peculiar in his social attach- 
ments, nor were they controlled at all by geo- 
detic propinquity. His adhesion to men was the 
result of congenial qualities, regardless of mathe- 
matical or external considerations of any sort, 
his geographical neighbors could not define what 
he was, except outwardly, simply because he did 
not disclose himself to them. His most cherished 
friends did not live in Springfield at all, and with 
the exceptions of Herndon, Logan, Stuart, Du- 
bois, and Matheny, the Springfield people knew 
nothing of him especially, beyond what they 
gleaned by seeing him pass through their streets, 
and hearing him, sometimes in a cheery, and 
sometimes in an absent-minded, way, say, ''How- 
dye ! Howdyt !" as a passing salute. Jesse K. 
Dubois served with Lincoln in the early legisla- 
tures, and became very intimate then, which in- 
timacy was increased when Dubois was elected 
State Auditor in 1856, and lived thence till 1861 
within sight of Lincoln's house. Five days be- 
fore the assassination, Dubois wrote me : *'I have 
been intimately associated with Lincoln for 
twenty-five years, but I now find out that I never 
knew him." 

At Washington, Lincoln was brought in close 
relations with many men of illustrious talents, 
but how few had any mental insight into the 
man? Yet he was not a Machiavelli or a Tal- 
leyrand; he had no duplicity, deceit, or affirma- 
tive dissimulation ; but he had a peculiar ability 
to mind his own business and keep his own coun- 
sels without being offensive, which amounted to 



236 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

genius. To the limited few who possessed his 
confidence, he was as unreserved in most particu- 
lars as men in ordinary, but to what I may term 
the exterior world — that portion outside his con- 
fidence — he was impenetrable. While to outward 
appearance he was brought face to face, and was 
671 rapport with the whole nation for four years, 
he occupied, in fact, the chair of state, "a sceptred 
hermit, wrapped in the solitude of his own 
originality." 

For some men, Lincoln had special uses, and 
the social ligature was limited to that narrow 
utility; for others the affinity was catholic. To 
an intimate who had mistakenly supposed that 
he placed much reliance on the counsels of David 
Davis, judge of our circuit, he explained away 
the error by this illustration : *'They had side 
judges down in New Hampshire, and to show the 
folly of the system, one who had been a side 
judge for twenty years said the only time the 
chief judge ever consulted him was at the close 
of a long day's session, when he turned to the 
side judge and whispered : 'Don't your back 
ache ?' " And Davis himself narrates that Lin- 
coln never consulted him but once or twice. 

On the other hand, he had some general and 
genuine friendships, which ranged throughout 
the entire gamut of correlative social amenities, 
and to such friendships, his loyalty and constancy 
were inflexible. He never sacrificed a friend at 
the behest of personal policy or menace, but over 
and over again he sacrificed policy and safety 
by reason of his loyalty and devotion to friend- 
ship. This trait I know in circumstance and de- 
tail, and I therefore affirm that Mr. Lincoln was 
the most firm, sincere, and unyielding devotee to 



MENTAL AND MORAL NATURES 237 

the sacred cause of friendship that I ever saw, 
and whenever his sense of obHgation to duty pre- 
vented his allowance of the claims of friendship, 
it gave him more pain than it did the disap- 
pointed one. 

An excellent test of Mr. Lincoln's high nobility 
of character and nature was his kindness and 
mercy. I never knew a brave and courageous 
man to be so abnormally sensitive about his own 
acts ; he touched the world with bare nerves, and 
suffered in secret more than was ever known or 
ever will be revealed about matters which, within 
the orbit of his great responsibilities, should be 
deemed to be extremely trivial. Once, on the 
steps of the War Department, he confided one of 
his minor sorrows to me, to secure my sympathy, 
apparently. I tried to make him relinquish it. 
He listened assentingly to my casuistry, but dis- 
missed the subject with the conclusion : "I know 
all that as well as you do, but I can't get over 
it," and he turned sadly away. 

Confidence was not only a very slow growth 
with Mr. Lincoln, but was an extremely rare 
growth as well, nor was it withdrawn for any 
but extreme reasons; and when Lincoln's confi- 
dence was betrayed or forfeited for social mis- 
demeanors, he took it to heart and brooded over 
it in genuine agony of mind. I recollect find- 
ing him on the train at midnight at Champaign, 
en route to Chicago, and I accompanied him ; and 
T. Lyle Dickey having just before announced to 
me his political recusancy, I told the news to 
Lincoln. The latter had not expected it, and 
I shall never forget the tremulous tones in which 
he lamented the loss of this, one of his thitherto 
most cherished friends. It touched his innermost 



238 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

soul, and he almost groaned in spirit at the re- 
flection. 

By reference to the literature to be found in 
Mr. Lincoln's letters, messages, and speeches, it 
will appear that he had an exquisite taste for the 
ideal, and a wealth of imagery and metaphor al- 
most miraculous for an uneducated man. His 
poetical taste attested alike his refinement of 
mind and mental gravitation toward the weird, 
sombre, and mystical. In his normal and tran- 
quil state of mind, *The Last Leaf," by Oliver 
Wendell Holmes, was his favorite in the whole 
wide expanse of reflective literature. Over and 
over again I have heard him repeat : 

The mossy marbles rest 

On the lips that he has prest 

In their bloom : 
And the names he loved to hear 
Have been carved for many a year 

On the tomb ! 

and tears would come unbidden to his eyes, prob- 
ably at thought of the grave at Gentryville, or 
that in the bend of the Sangamo. 

Herndon wrote to me of this poem : "I have 
heard Lincoln recite it, praise it, laud it, and 
swear by it ; it took him in all moods and fastened 
itself on him as never poem on man. This I 
know." 

The other favorite poetry of Lincoln was for 
particular moods. "The Inquiry," by Charles 
Mackay ; "Oh, Why Should the Spirit of Mortal 
be Proud?" by William Knox; and a passage 
from "Childe Harold," were attuned to single 
phases of his existence. His feelings tended to 
the mystical, the weird, and the melancholy, and 



MENTAL AND MORAL NATURES 239 

when his sympathies were steeped in the bitter 
waters of Marah, he would break out in the 
dirge-Hke lamentation, ''Oh, Why Should the 
Spirit of Mortal be Proud?" 

In no mode were his sagacity and diplomacy 
employed to better advantage than in his urbanity 
and his close affiliation with the people. By a 
figure of thought, as it were, the ruler of any 
nation in arms stands as the exponent of the 
stake contested for. The patriotism of the 
nation rallied to the slogan of 

We are coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 strong, 

and the beneficence and mercy of the President, 
though it weakened the army discipline directly, 
yet it strengthened it in its ultimate sources of 
support, by identifying the wishes, welfare, and 
earnest desires of the loved and revered Presi- 
dent with the vigorous prosecution of the war. 
If Mr. Lincoln had been animated with the un- 
bending and imperious spirit of discipline of Jef- 
ferson Davis, no spirit of enthusiasm would have 
animated the ''three hundred thousand," if, in- 
deed, they had come at all at his call. That 
philanthropy and mercy were the dominant mo- 
tives of his frequent exercise of mercy and of his 
many acts of beneficence, is undoubted, but his 
administration is replete with instances of his 
courting, cultivating, cajoling, and soliciting the 
favor of the people, of his identifying himself 
with them, of his making the people and himself 
homogeneous. 

Volumes are expressed in one sentence of Fred 
Douglass, "He is the only man I ever talked to 
for ten minutes, who didn't, in some way, give 



240 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

me to understand that I was a nigger," and yet 
he told the deputation of colored men who came 
to consult him about the future of their race, and 
without offence, that their race was different 
from his, and could not exist in the same nation 
together in harmony. 



CHAPTER XIII 

FREE-SOIL ADVOCATE 

It so happened in the year 1853 that Stephen 
A. Douglas, of IlHnois, and William A. Richard- 
son, also of Illinois, were chairmen, respectively, 
of the "Committees on Territories" in their re- 
spective houses, one of the Senate and the other 
of the Lower House, and to those committees 
would belong the duty of reporting, or consider- 
ing, any measure for the legal organization of the 
Territory of Kansas, or of Nebraska, as it was 
then called. 

Judge Douglas was an aggressive and pro- 
gressive statesman, and, as quickly as any one, saw 
the growing necessity of the case, to meet which, 
during the short session of 1852-3, he drew up, 
and reported from his committee, a bill to organ- 
ize the Territory of Nebraska, embracing the 
region which is now the States of Nebraska, Kan- 
sas, and part of Colorado, but it failed to become 
a law, simply for want of necessary time. 

This bill merely embodied the technical and 
ordinary features of a territorial bill, and con- 
tained no elements of disputation. There was ap- 
parently no opportunity for objection or criti- 
cism ; the necessity for organization was apparent 
in this, that emigrants were already occupying 
the country, and the land should be surveyed, so 
as to assure titles to them, and courts and legis- 
241 



242 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

lature and an executive should be established, in 
order to guarantee to the settlers "life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness." 

A political bargain had been entered into 
thirty-two years before, between the slave power 
and the exponents of freedom, by the terms and 
observances of which slavery had gained a large 
State north of the true dividing line between 
freedom and slavery, and the advocates of free- 
dom had simply the unfulfilled assurance that the 
advocates of slavery would make no further at- 
tempts to introduce it north of that line. 

Judge Douglas had publicly avowed that this 
bargain was sacred — *Vas canonized in the 
hearts of the people" — and that no "ruthless 
hand" would disturb it. David R. Atchison, 
then a United States Senator living on the bor- 
der line of Missouri, and at that time President 
of the Senate, had publicly announced that this 
compromise was a finality, and no thought ex- 
isted in any responsible mind that this compro- 
mise could be abrogated. Still there was even 
then a little ground for misgiving; irresponsible 
newspapers in the South began to carp at the 
Compromise; fault was found that the Illinois 
farmer could go to Nebraska with all of his 
property, while the Missouri planter must either 
keep out or leave his most valuable property, 
viz., his negroes, behind. The Southerners gen- 
erally, in speaking of the Compromise, berated it, 
and avowed that it was wrung from their neces- 
sities ; the Southern statesmen who had enacted 
it pretty well satisfied their constituents at the 
time, but they had generally ^passed away, and 
the then existing delegations must meet the ex- 
igencies, necessities, and prejudices of that time. 



FREE-SOIL ADVOCATE 243 

Some outside discussion had taken place at the 
time when, in 1853, the bill had been first offered, 
which disclosed a possibility that at least the dis- 
pleasure of the Southerners would be expressed 
at their exclusion from this Territory with their 
slaves. 

This prejudice was not appeased, nor these ob- 
jurgations stilled, by efflux of time; and seeming 
to fear that some effort would be made expressly 
to take some note of the Compromise, and thus 
produce friction, Senator Douglas, on January 4, 
1854, proposed an entirely new bill, similar to the 
preceding one, but accompanied the same by a 
special report, in which he expressly recom- 
mended that the Missouri Compromise be neither 
affirmed nor repealed — the idea being, probably, 
that the Supreme Court, then having a pro- 
slavery cast, might be invoked to pass on its con- 
stitutionality. Mutterings were heard on the 
Southern side of the chamber, as of parties who 
deemed themselves unfairly treated, but being 
without redress ; but no well-defined fears of any 
sort were anticipated. On the i6th of January, 
however, Senator Dixon, of Kentucky, his 
prejudice in favor of the institution of slavery 
and against the Missouri Compromise being 
more intense than any other, arose in his place 
and gave notice that in due and proper time he 
would offer an amendment to the territorial bill, 
repealing the Missouri Compromise in express 
terms. On the succeeding day. Senator Sumner 
gave notice that he would propose an amend- 
ment expressly recognizing the vital force and 
authority of the Compromise. Thus the gage of 
battle was thrown down by the South and taken 
up promptly by the North. There could be no 



244 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

middle ground; that the South would stand 
united to repeal the Missouri Compromise was 
apparent and probable ; that that powerful politi- 
cal faction would disinherit any Northern ally 
who should desert them in this crisis was equally 
sure, and that the free States would constitute 
a clear-cut and relentless opposition was quite as 
well foreseen. 

Douglas had been the favorite candidate of 
the young and progressive Democracy for the 
Presidency as early as 1851, immediately after the 
settlement of the slavery question then, and had 
not his friends treated the veteran statesmen of 
the party, Cass, Dickinson, Marcy, Toucy, and 
that class, with superciHousness and disdain, 
he would have been nominated and elected in 
1852. He had not, however, seriously damaged 
his political standing at this time, but it was clear 
that the time was now come when he could 
no longer hope to serve two masters; he must 
either pander to the views of the South, or he 
must abandon the political heresies urged by 
that intemperate section. This necessity was im- 
mediately pressed home upon him by David R. 
Atchison, who informed him, that, unless he was 
prepared to incorporate into the committee bill 
a clause expressly repealing the Missouri Com- 
promise, the party expected him to resign his 
place as chairman of the Committee on Terri- 
tories, in which event he, Atchison, was to resign 
the Presidency of the Senate, and take Douglas' 
place. Let it be recollected that at this time there 
was but one political party of any vitality in the 
field; at the prior Presidential election Pierce 
had carried every State but four. Clay and 
iWebster, the great leaders of the Whig party. 



FREE-SOIL ADVOCATE 245 

liad died In that same year; Seward had hardly- 
attained a national leadership, and the strong men 
of the Whig party, Clayton, Badger, Benjamin, 
Toombs, Stephens, Bell, and Jones were South- 
erners, and on the test question of the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise would doubtless affili- 
ate with the Southern Democrats. The Aboli- 
tionists had no healthy political organization, and, 
to a politician's eye, the alternative appeared to 
be offered to Douglas either to quit politics or 
consent to the repeal of the time-honored Com- 
promise. 

Douglas could not deliberate long, the impla- 
cable Dixon being ready and anxious to take the 
"laboring oar," and even if he should fail, Atchi- 
son and others being quite as eager. So Douglas, 
thus, at the point of divergence, took the wide 
gate and broad road which led to political 
damnation. That he knew the measure he was 
about to espouse was morally and politically 
wrong can scarcely admit of doubt; he had de- 
nounced in advance any possible violation of this 
compromise; he had introduced two different 
bills without proposing its repeal ; he had vainly 
remonstrated with Dixon on that subject. Still, 
waiving the moral question, it would appear, 
that in the stress of circumstances in which 
Douglas was placed, his decision was the expe- 
dient one; he was, on the whole, the most con- 
spicuous leader of the only political party in the 
nation, of any courage. With his aid, the meas- 
ure would certainly pass, and he would as cer- 
tainly attain the Presidency in 1856, after which 
the deluge might come. He took no account of 
the reserved force of the people. In addition, 
even if things should go awry, he had five years 



24^ LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

yet in the Senate, upon which he must render an 
account of his stewardship, and as he had suc- 
ceeded, only two years before, in placating the 
people's wrath for his vote on the Compromise 
measures, he deemed it reasonably clear that he 
could do so again, if needs were, in 1858. Upon 
a balancing of chances, he decided to commit the 
bark which carried him and his fortunes to the 
political tide Vv^hich flowed toward the Gulf of 
Mexico, and having decided to enter into a quar- 
rel with fate, he resolved to bear it so that fate 
should beware of him for the future. 

Having thus decided, he visited Senator Dixon 
(who was temporarily ill) at his lodgings and 
invited him to take a ride, during which he so- 
licited the honor and danger of being the cham- 
pion of the repeal of the Compromise — a distinc- 
tion which was generously accorded. So on Jan- 
uary 23 he reported a substitute for his original 
bill, making two Territories instead of one, and 
he incorporated a clause repealing the Missouri 
Compromise, on the alleged ground that it had 
been ''superseded by" the compromise measures 
of 1850, — as flimsy and fallacious a pretext as 
could be conceived of. When this substitute was 
presented, there was great excitement all over 
the nation. Had the substitution of a king for 
our Constitutional executive been suggested, the 
alarm could scarcely have been greater, for the 
public mind recalled the relentless advance of 
slavery toward imperial power, and saw in this 
movement a longer stride toward national slavery 
than had ever before been dared. 

The bill came up for consideration on the next 
day, but was, by common consent, made a special 
order for the 30th instant, and immediately an 



FREE-SOIL ADVOCATE 247 

address was drafted by Senator Chase and is- 
sued to the people of the North, showing the 
flagitious character of the measure and urging 
that the political power of the people be exerted 
in opposition. It received the signatures of Sen- 
ators Chase, Hall, and Sumner, and Representa- 
tives Gerrit, Smith, Benjamin F. Wade, Alex- 
ander R. Dewitt, and Joshua R. Giddings. The 
country responded to the excitement in Con- 
gress, and no political event, neither the dead- 
lock between Jefferson and Burr, nor the War of 
1812, nor Jackson's onslaught on the National 
Bank, so profoundly stirred the feelings of the 
people. 

Debate on the bill commenced by an exhaust- 
ive speech from Senator Douglas in its support, 
and was participated in by the leading debaters 
in the Senate on the Democratic side, and by 
Messrs. Seward, Hall, Sumner, Chase, Bell, and 
Houston, in opposition. The last session at 
which its consideration was had extended till 
daylight on March 3, when the bill passed the 
Senate by a majority of twenty-three. 

Four days later the bill reached the Lower 
House, and was referred to the Committee on 
Territories, whose chairman was Richardson, of 
Illinois, the same whom Lincoln had aided in the 
Legislature to elect State's Attorney over 
Browning. Meanwhile, the power of the people 
was beginning to be felt in Congress, which ren- 
dered the ultimate decision somewhat doubtful, 
and the active opponents of the measure deter- 
mined to make as gallant a stand in opposition as 
they could. Accordingly, on March 21 they 
moved to refer the bill to Committee of the 
Whole House on the State of the Union, which, 



24S LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

if accomplished and maintained, would probably 
dispose of the measure for that session; and it 
was so accomplished by a vote of no to 96. 
However, on the 8th of May, a resolution was 
adopted by a bare majority, to take up the bill, 
which was done and the bill discussed for two 
days, after which Richardson moved the previ- 
ous question, or gave notice of his immediate de- 
sign to do so, and thus force a vote without fur- 
ther parley. The Democrats felt assured of a 
sufficient majority to carry it through, it having 
been made an administration measure at the 
White House, as it also was a party measure at 
the Capitol, besides having the support of the 
pro-slavery Whigs. On the nth the previous 
question was attempted, and filibustering, as it 
was called, was resorted to, and prolonged all 
through that day, the succeeding night, and the 
whole of the next day till midnight, when the 
legislative iconoclasts, fagged out with bad 
whiskey, yelling, shaking of fists, and discom- 
fiture, raised the siege, and went home, cursing 
their unlucky stars. 

But the stake was too great to be yielded up, 
and in a couple of days Richardson moved, and 
after a severe struggle carried through, a motion 
to take a vote after a discussion of four days. 
Discussion was then had, and while there was a 
majority in favor of the bill, under proper and 
authorized practice as then allowed by the rules 
of the house, the minority could have long re- 
tarded and probably ultimately defeated the bill. 

One hundred and nineteen was the number 
requisite to constitute a quorum of the Commit- 
tee of the Whole. Unless there was a quorum, 
nothing could be done except to rise and report 



FREE-SOIL ADVOCATE 249 

no quorum. The anti-bill men refused to vote on 
the measure to rise and report the bill for passage, 
in consequence of which but one hundred and 
three members voted. Under fair ruling, as the 
practice then was, no progress could be made, 
but Edson B. Olds, of Ohio, the chairman of the 
committee, falsely declared the vote carried, and 
leaving the chair, made his false report, that the 
committee had recommended that the measure do 
pass. The friends and opponents of the measure 
then commenced the "life-and-death" struggle; 
the party lash was applied without stint to the 
Northern Democrats, who were inclined to be 
recalcitrant, and the Southern Whigs, of whom 
Alexander H. Stephens was the most conspicu- 
ous, were bound to vote according to the appar- 
ent interests of their section ; and so, on May 22, 
1854, this, the most important bill ever before 
Congress, was passed by a vote of 113 to 100, 
and the pro-slavery advocates of both political 
parties supposed that they had now entrenched 
slavery behind adamantine bulwarks. 

The last act in this national drama bore date 
May 20, 1854, when the President approved the 
bill and impressed upon it the imprimatur and 
sanction of law. 

Senator Dixon, of Kentucky, who was the 
pioneer in the repeal of the Missouri Compro- 
mise, served in the Senate only two and one-third 
years to fill out the uncompleted term of Henry 
Clay, who had always enjoyed the credit of being 
the father of that Compromise. He relates 
when Douglas came to him and solicited the privi- 
lege of bringing in a substitute for his previous 
bill and in that substitute including a repeal of 
the Compromise, Douglas then prophesied that 



250 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

he would be reviled, mobbed, burned in effigy, 
etc., at his own home, but that he was prepared 
to accept all such un'gracious consequences, etc. 
The sequence justified his predictions. Doug- 
las's home really was at Washington — but he 
hailed from Chicago, and when casually there 
stopped at the Tremont House, like any other 
transient ; and having none but political business 
in Illinois, it being to secure the re-election of his 
colleague, General Shields, who had voted to re- 
peal the Compromise, he deferred his visit to Illi- 
nois till fall, and accordingly, in September, he 
put in an appearance at Chicago, only to find 
Judd, Wentworth, Peck, all the newspapers, and 
the entire responsible public sentiment arrayed 
in deadly and implacable hostility against him. 
To attempt to stem such a current was a defiance 
of Fate itself; but Douglas was one of the most 
audacious of men, and he announced himself for 
a speech, and made an attempt to gain a hearing, 
but he was hooted down. However, on a second 
trial, he was listened to disdainfully but created 
no converts, and did not aid his cause. The 
State Fair was to sit in October, and in view of 
the excited condition of politics, and of the fact 
that the fair was to be held at the capital, there 
was a tremendous outpouring of public men 
congregated there; in point of fact, Douglas, 
Shields, and the members of Congress who had 
voted for the repeal of the Compromise had used 
their efforts to secure as large an attendance of 
their supporters as they could, while the oppo- 
nents of the repeal had been, with less despera- 
tion, perhaps, also active in gathering at the 
scene of action. The political situation was 
peculiar; there was no national election on hand. 



FREE-SOIL ADVOCATE 251 

and no general ticket to be elected, except for 
State Treasurer and Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, and yet no election ever had taken 
place in Illinois before which aroused such in- 
tense interest and created such widespread ex- 
citement, for a Legislature was to be chosen to 
select a successor to Shields, and Congressmen 
to replace those who had voted for and against 
the Nebraska Bill, and thus to sit in judgment 
upon the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 
Shields was, of necessity, a candidate, but there 
was no organized move to designate an opposi- 
tion candidate, since one of the Congressmen 
who had opposed the measure might have been 
selected, but none was. So when Douglas an- 
nounced his purpose to speak on October 3 in the 
Hall of the House of Representatives at the Capi- 
tol, it was simply to render an account of his 
stewardship in form, but in substance to advocate 
the re-election of Shields and such members of 
the Lower House as had aided his political tergi- 
versation. There was no formal or stated reason 
why Lincoln should reply, except from a general 
recognition of his superior ability to do so; no 
one else was mentioned in that connection, every- 
body seemed instinctively to indicate Lincoln as 
the champion, although he was a private citizen 
merely, with no political strand to bind him to 
the debate. 

Lincoln was not even present at the com- 
mencement of Douglas's speech, but came in dur- 
ing its delivery. At its conclusion, an an- 
nouncement was made that Lincoln would reply 
to it on the succeeding day. Accordingly, on the 
next day, he spoke for three hours, and made 
one of the greatest efforts of his life. It was a 



252 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

terrible philippic against the Nebraska Bill ; 
Douglas himself declared that he had heard 
nothing like it in the Senate. Lincoln had not 
only thoroughly prepared himself on all matters 
of fact and of record, but his feelings were thor- 
oughly aroused. He was not only indignant, but 
alarmed; he then believed that it was indispen- 
sable that the Missouri Compromise should be re- 
stored. In the repeal of the Missouri Com.pro- 
mise he fancied that the moral sluiceway had 
been opened which would flood the entire Union 
with slavery; and that unless the dam was re- 
stored by the might of public opinion, a radical 
change would be wrought in the genius of our in- 
stitutions. Freedom would be dethroned, and 
slavery made lawful alike in Massachusetts and 
South Carolina, Illinois and Texas, New York 
and Kentucky. 

In that fall, Lincoln made a speech in reply to 
Douglas at Peoria on October i6, and another, 
independently of Douglas, at Urbana on October 
24, the former being of the same tenor and im- 
port, substantially, as the Springfield speech, 
while the Urbana speech, having no political 
critics present, was more unguarded and less 
diplomatic. Lincoln then took a rest in a politi- 
cal sense (having been defeated for the Senate in 
January, 1855) till 1856, when he attended the 
Bloomington Convention as a delegate, said Con- 
vention having been called to represent all who 
opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 

His views on the subject of slavery as the 
question was then presented for practical consid- 
eration were fully expressed in a letter to his 
friend Joshua F. Speed, in the succeeding Au- 
gust, from which we extract as follows : **You 



FREE-SOIL ADVOCATE 253 

know I dislike slavery, and you fully admit the 
abstract wrong of it. . . . I do oppose the 
extension of slavery because my judgment and 
feelings so prompt me. ... If Kansas fairly 
votes herself a slave State, she must be admitted, 
or the Union must be dissolved. But how if she 
votes herself a slave State unfairly ; must she still 
be admitted, or the Union dissolved? That will 
be the phase of the question when it first becomes 
a practical one." 

In 1856 he was placed at the head of the elec- 
toral ticket, and canvassed the State, his general 
arguments being in antagonism to allowing 
slavery to be established in territory which had 
theretofore been consecrated to freedom, but with 
no practical specific method of preventing it. 



CHAPTER XIV 

ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 

The choosing from forty to sixty millions of 
people, embracing hundreds of men of known 
and recognized ability and fitness for the place, 
one of their number to be the conventional head 
of the Army and Navy and Civil and Executive 
departments of government, as v^ell as the social 
head of the nation, is controlled by destiny. The 
will of the individual alone is powerless to bring 
him to the exalted station. 

However, a statesman, sufficiently astute, may 
place himself in the road of destiny. Had Mr. 
Lincoln not entered the political arena in 1854, 
or at some later period, he would have been un- 
known even to destiny; that goddess does not 
make a President out of a simple country lawyer 
or a local politician. The candidate for this 
high office must align himself with the national 
spirit and movement of the time. Even 
Zachary Taylor won some comparatively petty 
victories at Palo Alto and Buena Vista. Plad 
political merit and logical deduction decided the 
question in i860, Seward would have been Presi- 
dent in 1 861 ; indeed, guided by that list, there 
were several who would have been preferred to 
Lincoln, for, tested by business methods, he cer- 
tainly should not, and would not, have been 
chosen. And even after he was chosen, the heart 

254 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 255 

of the loyal American people sank in dismay, as 
his rapid and vacuous speeches en route to the in- 
auguration, revealed an apparent feebleness in- 
compatible with the giant task that was then on 
his hands. 

I doubt if any man on earth thought seriously 
of Lincoln as a possible President on the morning 
of May 29, 1856. The only position he had 
held, which is deemed a stepping-stone to that 
unique place, was that of Congressman for one 
term, and in that place he achieved no eminence, 
but the reverse — indeed, it would seem as if his 
official life in Washington was a series of blun- 
ders. His method of attempting to oppose the 
Mexican War, and of trying to exorcise slavery 
from the District of Columbia, was peculiarly 
mal-apropos. 

Since then he had done no substantial thing in 
the way of politics, except to make three speeches 
in 1854 against the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise, and in favor of its restoration.* 

* My attention has been drawn to a statement by 
the usually accurate D. W. Bartlett to the effect, that 
the nomination for Governor was offered Mr. Lincoln 
by the Anti-Nebraska party in 1854, but he told his 
friends, "No; I am not the man. Bissell will make a 
better Governor than I, and you can elect him on ac- 
count of his Democratic antecedents"; and the writer 
adds: "So, giving to Bissell the flag it was universally 
desired that he, Lincoln, should bear," etc. 

This is erroneous throughout. No candidate for 
Governor was elected or spoken of in 1854, and Lin- 
coln was not mentioned in any responsible way, if, 
indeed, in any way whatever, for the candidacy in 
1856. In fact, no one but Bissell was mentioned, with 
any emphasis. It was well understood that the candi- 
date must be of Democratic extraction, and Bissell was 
nominated by acclamation as soon as the temporary 
organization was effected. I notice another error where 



256 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

Such was his political standing on the morn- 
ing of May 29, 1856, as he and I ate our break- 
fast together at the residence of Judge Davis in 
Bloomington, but before night he had been men- 
tioned by a sage observer and responsible friend 
as a possible candidate for President, and the 
statement had been repeated to him by me; and 
vi^as the germ which first was sown in his mind 
of hope for, and possibility of, attaining that 
proud position. 

The genesis of the Republican party in Illinois, 
as also the genesis of Mr. Lincoln's advancement 
to the supreme headship of the nation, was as 
follows : Paul Selby, editor of the Morgan 
Journal, proposed a convention of Free State 
editors on February 22, 1856, at Decatur, and 
the convention met in the parlors of the old Cas- 
sel House, there being about one dozen editors 
present. Mr. Lincoln was also in Decatur, and 
in consultation with the members of the conven- 
tion. Resolutions were adopted in opposition to 
the extension of slavery, in favor of the restora- 
tion of the Missouri Compromise, and the resto- 
ration to Kansas and Nebraska of the legal guar- 
anties against slavery of which they were de- 
prived. The convention also appointed a State 
Central Committee as follows: S. M. Church, 
W. B. Ogden, G. D. A. Parks, L. J. Pickett, E. A. 
Dudley, William H. Herndon, R. J. Oglesby, 
Joseph Gillespie, Gustavus Koerner, and Ira O. 
Wilkinson ; and they recommended the holding of 

it should not be : viz., in Nicolay and Hay's "Lincoln." 
The distinguished authors name Judge Davis and Sen- 
ator Trumbull as in attendance at the convention. 
Neither was. Senator Trumbull was in his seat in the 
Senate, and Judge Davis was holding court at Danville. 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 257 

a State convention at Bloomington on May 29, 
succeeding, and requested the committee to make 
suitable arrangements. This was done, Koerner, 
Ogden. and Oglesby not acting with other mem- 
bers of the committee. And this Bloomington 
Convention was of great practical and historical 
importance as laying the foundations of the Re- 
publican party, and as being the distinct starting- 
point of Abraham Lincoln's race for the Presi- 
dency. 

To this convention Lincoln had been made one 
of the delegates by Herndon, his partner, in 
his absence, and he attended. Many great poli- 
ticians were there ; among whom I may men- 
tion Palmer (now United States Senator), Judd, 
Cook, Peck, Browning, Washburne, Farnsworth, 
Wentworth, Hatch, l3ubois, Lovejoy, Herndon, 
Williams, Dickey, and Swett. 

By virtue of his political standing alone, Lin- 
coln would not have figured as a leader, either of 
the convention, or of the political movement then 
inaugurated. Lie had belonged to the minority 
party, and had always bestridden the losing horse, 
in political contests, except that he had been 
once elected to Congress, and even then his rec- 
ord was so unpopular that a Democrat was 
elected as his successor, although the district was 
a Whig one, as a rule. There were delegates in 
this convention who had achieved successful 
political careers, as Wentworth and Washburne, 
who had had several terms in Congress, Wash- 
burne being a Representative at the time, Judd, 
who had represented Cook County in the State 
Senate for sixteen years, and many others who 
controlled the local politics of their immediate 
localities, but by virtue of his recognized superior 



258 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

ability Lincoln was accorded the post of honor 
in that convention. 

Among human achievements which serve as 
pivots upon which great events turn, none is 
more potent than an utterance, a speech, or a 
letter. 

In 1844, Henry Clay wrote a letter on the sub- 
ject of the annexation of Texas which cost him 
his election ; the Mexican War would not have 
occurred had he been elected, and the whole 
policy of government would have been different — 
California, with its rich possibilities, would have 
remained a Mexican province. James G. Blaine 
wrote some letters to one Mulligan, of Boston; 
their promulgation cost him the nomination for 
President in 1876 and cost him his election in 
1884. He also was tempted while in Congress to 
make a satirical speech directed against Roscoe 
Conkling; had that speech remained unspoken 
he would have been President. 

What shrewd political philosophy there was in 
Martin Van Buren's remark that he "would 
rather walk twenty miles to see a man than to 
write him a letter." So, too, with single speeches. 
Garfield's classic speech, in which he nominated 
John Sherman for the Presidency in 1880, caused 
him,self to be selected as the candidate. 

At the Bloomington Convention I have referred 
to, Mr. Lincoln made the principal speech ; and it 
was the chef d'ocnvre of the convention. That 
was the initial point of Lincoln's candidacy for 
the Presidency. It segregated him from the po- 
litical map, and placed him on the pinnacle of Illi- 
nois politics. 

In my "Life on the Circuit with Lincoln" I have 
given an elaborate account of Lincoln's relation 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 259 

to this convention, and which I may here supple- 
ment by a few notes. One conspicuous matter is 
this, that while Lincoln did not, as a rule, betray 
enthusiasm under any stress of circumstances, he 
was in a state of enthusiasm and suppressed ex- 
citement throughout this convention ; yet he kept 
his mental balance, and was not swerved a hair's- 
breadth from perfect equipoise in speech or ac- 
tion. We were at Judge Davis's house, a half-mile 
from the focus of political action, and thus out 
of the whirl of excitement. Archibald Williams 
and Judge Dickey were our companions, the for- 
mer sleeping with Lincoln; and both were ex- 
tremely conservative, and had great influence 
over Lincoln. 

The public mind everywhere was in a feverish 
and excited condition, and this unwholesome con- 
dition was emphasized in the minds of the peo- 
ple's representatives assembled at this conven- 
tion. Lawrence, Kan., had just been attacked, 
and the "Free State" Hotel and two printing 
offices destroyed. Governor Robinson of Kansas 
had been arrested without legal warrant in Mis- 
souri, his house sacked and fired, and himself 
chained out on the prarie, in default of a jail; 
Mrs. Robinson, and James S. Emery, a leading 
Free State man, were at the Bloomington Con- 
vention. Governor Reeder, who had just escaped 
from Kansas in disguise, was also there ; and all 
three, necessarily and by design, aroused and ex- 
cited the delegates. Charles Sumner had been 
beaten by *'Bully" Brooks in the United States 
Senate, just one week previously, and was 
reported to be dying; and v/ord had just come 
that Senator Trumbull had offered a resolu- 
tion in the Senate, having for its aim the preven- 



26o LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

tion of Civil War and the restoration of peace in 
Kansas, which had been received with derision by- 
Douglas and those of his political complexion. 
Lovejoy and the Abolitionists were urging ex- 
treme measures in resolutions which the Kan- 
sas colony fomented, and the street talk was all 
in the direction of radicalism. While O. H. 
Browning was making an excellent speech in the 
Convention, the crowd kept interrupting by call- 
ing for Lovejoy, and the former was obliged to 
yield the floor ; the general sentiment was radical. 
In the seclusion and privacy of our temporary 
home, Lincoln, Williams, and Dickey discussed 
the situation earnestly, all uniting in favor of 
conservative counsels, and they did more than 
all others combined in shaping the moderate and 
conservative course which was finally adopted by 
the convention. The general sentiment, undoubt- 
edly, was in favor of most radical expressions ; 
but, owing mainly to Lincoln's and Williams's 
monitions, a conservative course was adopted; 
and the following resolutions, among others, 
were adopted, chiefly upon Lincoln's suggestion: 

Resolved, That we hold, in accordance with the opin- 
ions and practices of all the great statesmen of all par- 
ties for the first sixty years of the administration of the 
government, that, under the Constitution, Congress pos- 
sesses full power to prohibit slavery in the territories; 
and that, while we will maintain all constitutional rights 
of the South, we also hold that justice, humanity, the 
principles of freedom as expressed in our Declaration of 
Independence and our National Constitution, and the 
purity and perpetuity of our government require that 
that power should be exerted to prevent the extension 
of slavery into territory heretofore free. 

Lincoln put the situation to Judd and Peck in 
this way : *'Your party is so mad at Douglas for 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 261 

wrecking his party that it will gulp down any- 
thing; but our party [Whig] is fresh from Ken- 
tucky and must not be forced to radical meas- 
ures ; the Abolitionists will go with us anyway, 
and your wing of the Democratic party the same, 
but the Whigs hold the balance of power and 
will be hard to manage, anyway. Why," said he, 
"I had a hard time to hold Dubois when he found 
Love joy and Codding here ; he insisted on going 
home at once." 

Governor Reeder was quite a lion to the multi- 
tude, but no lion to Lincoln. The latter, Wil- 
liams, and myself were going to our rooms in the 
evening, from the Pike House, and we passed a 
crowd listening to Reeder, in the Court House 
Square. We listened but for a moment. "He 
can't overcome me," said Williams. *'He would 
have to do a great deal to overcome my prejudice 
against him," said Lincoln, and we all turned 
away ; in fact, Lincoln did not meet Reeder at all ; 
he was deeply prejudiced against him for some 
reason. 

The morning after the adjournment of the con- 
vention, as we came down town to take the 
Springfield train, we met several delegates, en 
route for the Illinois Central Railroad, and each 
one had to wring Lincoln's hand and say some- 
thing complimentary of his speech of the day be- 
fore. "Lincoln, I never swear," said WiUiam 
Hopkins, of Grundy, "but that was the damndest 
best speech I ever heard." 

Of that speech, John L. Scripps, Herndon, and 
myself each tried to take notes. I succeeded 
measurably; the others failed ignominiously. 
My notes are very imperfect, but I reproduce, as 
best I can, from those notes, the principal parts 



262 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

of that celebrated speech. (See "You Shall Not 
Go Out of the Union" in Speeches.) 

On the 17th of June, after the Bloomington 
Convention, the first Republican National con- 
vention met in Philadelphia, and Lincoln polled 
one hundred and ten votes for Vice President; 
and from that time onward we who were close 
to him, Smith, Dubois, Herndon, Bill Jayne, J. 
O. Cunningham, and James Somers, used to 
electioneer each other in his behalf, while poli- 
ticians of steadier poise looked on askance, if not, 
indeed, amused. The first newspaper that men- 
tioned him as a Presidential possibility was the 
Central Illinois Gazette, published in Champaign, 
111., by J. W. Scroggs. On May 4, 1859, it 
printed the following articles, the first in the local 
column, the second in the editorial. Will O. 
Stoddard, Esq., afterward Lincoln's secretary to 
sign land patents, and later his biographer, wrote 
both articles, he being editor of the paper at the 
time. 

PERSONAL. 

Our Next President. — We had the pleasure of Intro- 
ducing to the hospitalities of our Sanctum, a few days 
ago, the Hon. Abraham Lincoln. Few men can make 
an hour pass away more agreeably. We do not pre- 
tend to know whether Mr. Lincoln will ever conde- 
scend to occupy the White House or not, but if he 
should, it is a comfort to know that he has estab- 
lished for himself a character and reputation of sufficient 
strength and purity to withstand the disreputable and 
corrupting influences of even that locality. No man in 
the West at the present time occupies a more enviable 
position before the people or stands a better chance 
for obtaining a high position among those to whose 
guidance our ship of state is to be entrusted. 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 263 
WHO SHALL BE PRESIDENT? 

We have no sympathy with those poHticians of any 
party who are giving themselves up to a corrupt and 
selfish race for the presidential chair, and are rather 
inclined to believe that the result will be a disappoint- 
ment to the whole race of demagogues. The vastness 
of the interests depending on the political campaign now 
commencing, gives even a more than usual degree of 
interest to the question: "Who shall be the candidate?" 
Believing that a proper discussion of this question 
through the columns of the local papers is the true way 
to arrive at a wise conclusion, we propose to give our 
views, so far as formed, and we may add that we are 
well assured that the same views are entertained by 
the mass of the Republican party of Central Illinois. 

In the first place, we do not consider it possible for 
the office of President of the United States to become 
the personal property of any particular politician, how 
great a man soever he may be esteemed by himself and 
his partisans. We, therefore, shall discuss the "can- 
didate question" unbiassed by personal prejudices or an 
undue appreciation of the claims of any political leader. 
We may add, with honest pride, an expression of our 
faith in the leading statesmen of our party, that neither 
Chase nor Seward nor Banks nor any other whose 
name has been brought prominently before the people, 
will press individual aspirations at the expense of the 
great principles whose vindication is inseparably linked 
with our success. While no circumstances should be 
allowed to compel even a partial abandonment of 
principle, and defeat in the cause of right is infinitely 
better than a corrupt compromise with wrong, never- 
theless, the truest wisdom for the Republican party in 
this campaign will be found in such a conservative and 
moderate course as shall secure the respect and con- 
sideration even of our enemies, and shall not forget 
National compacts within which we are acting and by 
which we are bound : and the proper recognition of this 
future of the contest should be allowed its due influ- 
ence in the selection of our standard bearer. 

Although local prejudices ought always to be held 
subordinate to the issues of the contest, it will not be 
wise to overlook their importance in counting the prob- 
abilities of what will surely be a doubtful and bitterly 



264 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

contested battlefield. It is this consideration which 
has brought into so great prominence the leading Re- 
publican statesmen of Pennsylvania and Illinois. If 
these two states can be added to the number of those in 
which the party seems to possess an unassailable supe- 
riority, the day is ours. The same reasons to a less 
extent, in exact proportion to its force in the electoral 
college, affect New Jersey. 

From Pennsylvania and Illinois, therefore, the can- 
didates for President and Vice President might, with 
great propriety, be chosen. It is true that our present 
Chief Magistrate is from Pennsylvania, and other States 
justly might urge that a proper apportionment of the 
National honors would not give her the presidency twice 
in succession ; but, while there are several good prece- 
dents for such a course of action, there is one point 
which outweighs in importance all others: to wit, We 
must carry Pennsylvania in i860, and if we can best 
do it with one of our own citizens as standard-bearer, 
that fact cannot be disregarded with impunity. The 
delegation from the Keystone State will doubtless pre- 
sent this idea with great urgency in the National con- 
vention. 

Aside from this, there are other points in favor of the 
two States mentioned, which cannot fail to carry great 
weight in the minds of all candid and reasonable men. 
They have both been distinguished for moderation and 
patriotism in the character of their statesmen, with as 
few exceptions as any other States. They are among 
that great central belt of States which constitute the 
stronghold of conservatism and Nationality. They are 
not looked upon as "sectional" in their character, even 
by the South. They, moreover, are, to a high degree, 
representative States. Where will our manufacturing, 
mining, and trading interests find a better representa- 
tive than Pennsylvania? Or what State is more identi- 
fied in all its fortunes with the great agricultural in- 
terests than is Illinois? 

The States themselves, then, being open to no valid 
objection, we come to the question of individual candi- 
dates. Pennsylvania has not yet determined her choice 
from among her own great men, but as for Illinois it 
is the firm and fixed belief of our citizens that for 
one or the other of the offices in question, no man will 
be so sure to consolidate the party vote of this State,. 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 265 

or will carry the great Mississippi Valley with a more 
irresistible rush of popular enthusiasm, than our dis- 
tinguished fellow citizen, 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

We, in Illinois, know him well, in the best sense of 
the word, a true democrat, a man of the people, whose 
strongest friends and supporters are the hard-handed 
and strong-limbed laboring men, who hail him as a 
brother and who look upon him as one of their real 
representative men. A true friend of freedom, having 
already done important service for the cause, and 
proved his abundant ability for still greater service ; 
yet a staunch conservative, whose enlarged and liberal 
mind descends to no narrow view, but sees both sides 
of every great question, and of whom we need not fear 
that fanaticism on the one side, or servility on the other, 
will lead him to the betrayal of any trust. We appeal 
to our brethren of the Republican press for the cor- 
rectness of our assertions. 



The next newspaper announcement was in the 
Aurora Beacon, published by John W. Ray, on 
October 5, 1859, but no one knew how deep and 
earnest the feeling for him was till the sitting of 
the convention in i860. 

The truth of history requires me to concede or 
aver that the proximate and superficial cause of 
Mr. Lincoln's nomination was adroit and astute 
political skill and management at the convention, 
but the ultimate and remote causes were discern- 
ible in Lincoln's own political genius, for the un- 
embellished fact is, that he was inspired either on 
May 29 or June 20, 1856, or thereabouts, to com- 
pete for this high exaltation, and he wrought this 
enduring structure of his fame mainly alone. 
Seward had hundreds of well-trained, astute po- 
litical henchmen and lieutenants, but Lincoln's 
few adherents were those whose efforts were, in 



'i^^i LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

the main, muscular (running of errands and the 
Hke), of whom I am proud to have been one. 

Alone, he trod the paths of high intent. 

Herndon was almost his only mentor; Dubois 
and Bill Jayne constituted the committee of ar- 
rangements in Springfield; Davis and Swett in 
Bloomington ; Lawson and Harrison in Vermil- 
ion, etc. Most of them worked con amore, 
chiefly from love of the man, his lofty moral tone, 
his pure political morality. In an essay entitled, 
'The Presidential Nomination," appearing in my 
''Life on the Circuit with Lincoln," the details of 
how the nomination was directly achieved will be 
found by those who may be curious to know 
them. 

In the convention of May 29, 1856, Lincoln 
was, by common consent, placed at the head of 
the electoral ticket, and he entered actively into 
the campaign, making speeches in all parts of the 
State, except in Egypt (the southern part of IIH- 
nois). 

In 1858, a Legislature was to be chosen in Illi- 
nois, upon which devolved the responsibility of 
choosing a Senator to succeed to Douglas's then 
unexpired term. All eyes were turned to Lin- 
coln as the Republican candidate (and in point of 
fact, the State convention indicated him by a most 
radical resolution as *'the first and only choice 
for Senator"), and he could not do otherwise 
than accept the nomination. While, however, his 
political friends were training him for the Sen- 
ate, he was coaching himself for the Presidency, 
tv/o years thereafter. Disdaining the lesser dis- 
tinction, and aiming at the greater one, he care- 
fully prepared and read before the convention the 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 267 

celebrated "House divided against itself speech 
of June 17, 1858, which lost him the Senatorship 
and gained him the Presidency. Herndon, who 
had approved of the speech before it was deliv- 
ered, said in his bizarre and fantastic style : ''Of 
that speech Lincoln instantly died." Swett said : 
"There were ten lines in that speech which killed 
Lincoln." The keynote of this speech was not 
suddenly achieved by Lincoln, for in a fugitive 
speech made during the canvass of 1856 he had 
enunciated it ; and he no doubt would have made 
it prominent in the canvass had not Judge Dickey, 
who heard it, implored him to suppress it. Lin- 
coln claimed no credit for originating the idea of 
his speech. On the contrary, he said at Cincin- 
nati in 1859: *'But neither I, nor Seward, nor 
Hickman is entitled to the enviable or unenviable 
distinction of having first expressed the idea. The 
same idea was expressed by the Richmond En- 
quirer in 1856 — quite two years before it was ex- 
pressed by the first of us." 

Mr. Lincoln was a constant patron of the 
Richmond Enquirer, and obtained his idea of the 
drift of popular sentiment in the South largely, 
if not, indeed, chiefly, from that organ. The 
following editorial article forcibly attracted his. 
attention, the date being May 6, 1856: 

Social forms so widely differing as those of domestic 
slavery and (attempted) universal liberty cannot long 
co-exist in the great Republic of Christendom. They 
cannot be equally adapted to the wants and interests of 
society. The one form or the other must be very 
wrong, very ill-suited to promote the quiet, the peace, 
the happiness, the morality, the religion and general 
well-being of communities. Disunion will not allay ex- 
citement and investigation, much less beget lasting peace. 
The war between the two systems rages everywhere and 



268 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

will continue to rage till the one conquers, and the other 
is exterminated. If, with disunion, we could have the 
"all and end of all" then the inducement would be strong 
to attempt it. But such a measure would but inspire 
our European and American adversaries with additional 
zeal.* 

Lincoln read his speech to a little coterie of his 
friends, in advance of its delivery, and Herndon 
predicted : ''Lincoln, deliver that speech, as read, 
and it will make you President." It was the 
leaven hid in public opinion, and ultimately it 
leavened the whole lump ; it was bread cast upon 
the waters to be gathered after many days. Lin- 
coln himself said : 'This thing has been retarded 
long enough. The time has come when these 
sentiments should be uttered, and if it is decreed 
that I should go down because of this speech, 
then let me go down, linked to the truth — let me 
die in the advocacy of what is just and right." 
Yet none but Herndon approved of it in ad- 
vance ; and he, chiefly, from his belief in the un- 
erring wisdom of Lincoln. Dubois bluntly told 
Lincoln, in presence of his inner circle of friends, 
that "it zvas a damned fool speech;" but had 

* Roger A. Pryor was then editor of the Enquirer, 
and prolDably wrote the article. Lincoln told me that 
at the Charleston Convention, which met at about this 
time, Pryor obtained his first concrete acquaintance with 
the Northern Democracy, and that he was perfectly 
shocked and dismayed at the exhibition. Lincoln said 
that Pryor was socially a polished gentleman, and that 
he looked on aghast at the low, profane, and whiskey- 
drinking crowds that poured out of the Northern cities 
as lobby delegates. I suppose he must have given 
vent to his feeling of disgust in his columns, and that 
Lincoln got his ideas there. This would be more prob- 
able from the fact that Pryor and his adherents de- 
tested the candidate of these Northern "bummers." 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 269 

Lincoln not made it, he never would have been 
President; it was *'a word spoken in season," 
and it constituted the turning-point in his ca- 
reer. With an astuteness and a poHtical divina- 
tion superior to all of his fellows, he foresaw the 
political future and firmly declared: "If I had 
to draw a pen across my record, and erase my 
whole life from remembrance, and I had one 
choice allowed me what I might save from the 
wreck, I should choose that speech, and leave it 
to the world just as it is." 

On the day of Douglas's election to the Senate, 
Lincoln said to me : *'I can't help it, and I expect 
everybody to leave us." 

The political situation in Illinois was not satis- 
factory to any class except the discredited poli- 
ticians who had nothing to lose and everything to 
gain by abnormal conditions of politics. Judge 
Douglas had found that the disaffection in the 
ranks of the Democracy by reason of the enact- 
ment of the Nebraska Bill was more than a re- 
volt — that it was, in fact, a radical revolution; 
and when the administration determined to force 
Kansas into the Union under the Lecompton 
Constitution, he made haste to retrieve his past 
error, and ally himself to the Northern political 
protestants against the growing aggressions of 
the awful slave power. This was extremely dan- 
gerous ground for even so wily and versatile a 
politician to assume, for he could hardly hope to 
retain his standing with the Southern school of 
politicians if he wavered at all on the slavery 
question. The condition, however, was desper- 
ate; he had lost control of Illinois, and must de- 
vise some means to regain it, if he would remain 
in politics, for a Legislature was to be chosen in 



270 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

1858, which was to choose a Senator in his place, 
and if he could not succeed himself his prestige 
would be gone forever. He must, therefore, re- 
cover some, at least, of the lost ground at home, 
even at the hazard of losing in the great arena of 
the whole nation. He, therefore, placed himself 
in the field as an avowed candidate for his own 
succession, and his shibboleth was *'Anti-Le- 
compton." This was an adroit and wise course, 
and barely succeeded, and that in an entirely un- 
expected and novel way; for he gained as ad- 
vocates of his cause, among others, Horace 
Greeley and John J. Crittenden, both of whom 
urged his re-election to the Senate. The in- 
fluence of these distinguished men can only be 
known by an understanding of our local politics, 
which may be thus stated in general terms : The 
northern part of the State was peopled by immi- 
grants from the Northern States, which gave a 
decided ''anti-slavery" cast to the politics there; 
on the contrary, the southern part of the State 
was peopled by immigrants from Virginia, Ken- 
tucky, and Tennessee, whose prejudices and pre- 
dilections were favorable to the "peculiar insti- 
tution" and were likewise Democratic in their 
party affiliations. But in the centre of the State 
there were several legislative districts the sub- 
stratum of whose population was of the "Henry 
Clay" Whig school of politics, who hated De- 
mocracy, with all that the term implied, with re- 
ligious zeal ; but who despised Abolitionism in all 
of its manifestations and modifications with no 
less fervor. The contest promised to be close in 
the Legislature by reason of the fact that since the 
apportionment of the State into legislative dis- 
tricts in 1850 the southern part of the State had 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 271 

not improved in an equal ratio and consequence 
with the northern portion, and hence a large nu- 
merical majority might be obtained for the Re- 
publicans, and yet the Legislature be Democratic. 
The political complexion of most of the districts 
was in no wise doubtful, but the old Whig dis- 
tricts were extremely so. Ordinarily, they would 
have sustained the candidates of the Republican 
party, who would have supported Mr. Lincoln, 
but in doing so they would be acting in harmony 
with Love joy. Codding, Farns worth, and the 
''anti-slavery" cohorts whom their souls abhorred. 
And Greeley, who had been their political mentor 
in the era of the Whig party, urged them, with 
the frantic and uncompromising zeal so charac- 
teristic of him, to support Douglas. Joined to 
this powerful influence, the Douglas adherents 
left no means unexhausted to convince them that 
the tendencies of the Republican party were to 
the unconditional abolition of slavery and the in- 
undation of the whole nation with free negroes; 
while, to cap all, a letter from John J. Crittenden 
to T. Lyle Dickey strongly favoring Douglas was 
published clandestinely and without warning 
in these doubtful districts just on the eve of 
election, and before its views could be counter- 
acted. These several elements elected Douglas, 
and in my judgment Governor Crittenden's letter 
was the dominating influence in the election and 
controlled the result. I here annex it — its 
electioneering tone is plain : 

Frankfort, August i, 1858. 
My Dear Sir: 

I read, some days ago, your letter of the 19th of last 
month, in which you state the substance of a con- 
versation between us in relation to Judge Douglas, said 



2 72 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 



to have taken place in April last at the City of Washing- 
ton. You ask if your statement is correct and you ask 
my permission to speak of it privately and publicly as 
occasion may prompt you. I remember the conversa- 
tion to which you allude and the substance of it: it 
occurred at Washington during the last session of 
Congress, and most probably in April. Your state- 
ment of that conversation corresponds substantially 
with my recollection of it. As you state in your letter 
I did, in that conversation, speak of Senator Douglas 
in high and warm terms. I said that the people of 
Illinois little knew how much they really owed him. 
That he had the courage and patri-otism to take a high, 
elevated, just and independent position on the Lecomp- 
ton question at the sacrifice of interesting social rela- 
tions, as well as old party ties, and in defiance of the 
power and patronage of an angry administration sup- 
ported by a dominant party disbursing a revenue of 
some $86,000,000 a year; that for this noble conduct, 
he had been almost overwhelmed with denunciation. 
That the attacks made upon him in the debate in the 
Senate were frequent, personal and fierce ; that 
throughout the entire session, he must have felt the 
consciousness that he was in daily danger of being so 
assailed in debate as to force him into altercations and 
quarrels that might, in their consequence, involve the 
loss of honor or of life. Notwithstanding all this, 
he had kept his course firmly and steadily throughout 
the whole struggle, and had borne himself gallantly. 
I thought there was a heroism in his course calling 
not only for approbation but for applause. 

In the above statement, I have rather confined myself 
to those particulars of our conversation suggested by 
your letter, than attempted to detail the whole of it. The 
above, however, contains the substance of what passed, 
and whatever else was said was in accordance with 
it. This conversation with you, Sir. formed but a part 
of many others of a like character which I held on the 
same subject. I often expressed my high opinion of 
that conduct of Judge Douglas on the "Lecompton" 
question. I expressed it frequently, fully and openly, 
and was careless who might hear or who might repeat 
it. Under the circumstances I do not feel that it would 
become me to object, or that, indeed, I have any right 
to object to your repeating our conversation when I 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 273 

have, myself, so freely and so publicly declared the 
whole substance of it. I have thus answered your let- 
ter as I felt myself bound to do. I must add, how- 
ever, that I do not wish to be an officious intermeddler 
in your election, or even to appear to be so. I, there- 
fore, hope and request that when you have occasion to 
speak on the subject of this letter, you will do me 
the justice to explain and to acquit me of any such 
voluntary intermeddling or of the presumption of seek- 
ing to obtrude myself or my sentiments upon the atten- 
tion of the people of Illinois. I am. Sir, 
With great respect, 

J. J. Crittenden. 
T. Lyle Dickey, Esq. 

Mr. Lincoln wrote to Governor Crittenden on 
the day after the election : 'The emotions of de- 
feat in which I felt more than a merely selfish 
interest and to which defeat the use of your name 
contributed largely are fresh upon me/' etc. 

I may say further, that after the defection of 
Judge Douglas from the Democratic party, on 
account of Lecomptonism, the administration of 
James Buchanan acted with extreme unwisdom 
in making an unrelenting war upon Douglas and 
his friends in Illinois. A strict Hst was made, 
and all office-holders who adhered to the recalci- 
trant Senator were summarily decapitated, and 
their places filled as a rule by political adventur- 
ers without character or standing in the party. 
The war was even so relentless as to embrace the 
establishment of an ultra-Democratic organ in 
Chicago to assail Douglas, and even the acquisi- 
tion of the control of the Senator's own organ, 
likewise to break him down. These schemes, 
like spitting against the wind, resulted in their 
authors' discomfiture ; the adherents to the 
"Buchanan" Democracy in Illinois were not so 
numerous as the accessions which Douglas made 



274 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

from the temporary opposition, chiefly by reason 
of this unjust warfare upon him for a stand made 
by him on principle. So Buchanan's efforts, Hke 
those of Greeley, for a different reason, aided in 
the reelection of Douglas. 

But the partisans of Douglas were not only 
sedulous to return him to the Senate, but likewise 
to make him the general candidate of the anti- 
extension of slavery party for the Presidency. 
This callow design was broached tentatively in 
Illinois and elsewhere, and gained auditors in un- 
expected quarters; even my deeply lamented 
friend, Swett, listened to the voice of the siren, 
and he and I had a heated discussion about it. 
Governor Bissell and Jesse O. Norton, in my 
presence, in January, 1859, ^t the Executive Man- 
sion, in Springfield, mutually prophesied that 
Douglas would be elected President in the suc- 
ceeding year^ partly by Republican votes. This 
political ghost of the future disturbed Mr. Lin- 
coln very much in 1859. He was then predes- 
tined as the candidate of his own State, and he 
viewed with alarm the evidence of the setting of 
the political tide toward Douglas. Lincoln talked 
with me about it, and I heard him talk 
to others about it, more than once, always with 
self-depreciation, but likewise always earnestly. 
But the people remained true to their party alle- 
giance, and, while Douglas by an accident re- 
tained his technical place in politics, his party re- 
mained out of power for nearly forty years there- 
after. 

I here annex a personal letter from Mr. Lin- 
coln to Governor Chase on the above subject, 
which shows his opinion of the close straits our 
party was in in the year 1858 : 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 275 

Springfield, 111., April 30, 1859. 
The Hon. S. P. Chase : 

Dear Sir : Reaching home yesterday I found 
your kind note of the 14th, informing me that 
you have given Mr. Whitney the appointment de- 
sired ; and also mentioning the present encourag- 
ing aspects of the Republican cause and our Illi- 
nois canvass of last year. I thank you for the 
appointment. Allow me also to thank you as be- 
ing one of the very few distinguished men whose 
sympathy we in Illinois did receive last year, of 
all those whose sympathy we thought we had 
reason to expect. 

Of course I would have preferred success ; but, 
failing in that, I have no regrets for having re- 
jected all advice to the contrary and resolutely 
made the struggle. Had we thrown ourselves 
into the arms of Douglas, as re-electing him by 
o-^r "-^°c would have done, the Republican cause 
would have been annihiliated in Illinois, and, as 
I think, demoralized and prostrated everywhere 
for years, if not forever. As it is, in the language 
of Benton, "we are clean," and the Republican 
star gradually rises higher everywhere. 
Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

It chanced that, when Douglas returned to Illi- 
nois, on July 9, 1858, to take up his canvass for 
the Senate, Lincoln was there to argue a motion 
before Judge Drummond; and he attended and 
listened to Douglas' harangue at that time. At 
the request of his Republican friends in the city, 
he replied the succeeding night.* Just one week 

* For text of this and the following speeches, see 
Speeches in the present edition. 



276 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

later Mr. Lincoln made a speech at his home in 
the same tenor. 

Mr. Lincoln had with some difficulty induced 
Douglas to hold a joint debate with him in seven 
different places in the State, and the first of these 
joint debates took place at Ottawa, August 21 ; 
at which Douglas opened the debate with a vio- 
lent attack on Lincoln.* 

It is scarcely necessary to say that there was 
not one word of truth in Douglas's charges ; but 
the distinguished orator evidently acted on the as- 
sumption that ''a lie will travel forty leagues 
before truth gets on its boots." Lincoln kept his 
temper, however, and he made a most dignified 
and conclusive answer. (I may say that I had the 
honor to be Lincoln's companion de voyage on 
this occasion.) 

The next debate was at Freeport, August 2'^, 
and was made memorable by reason of the trap 
which Lincoln baited with temporary expediency, 
and caught Douglas's chance of the Presidency. 
It occurred thus : At Ottawa Douglas had pro- 
pounded to his competitor a string of not well- 
considered questions, easy to answer, and which 
Lincoln cautiously took time to answer ; and then 
turned the tables by demanding ''a Roland for an 
Oliver." 

Lincoln's answers demonstrate conclusively 
that he was looking beyond the Senatorship, for 
he so answered as to lose votes in that canvass. 



* The Chicago Tribune thus exhibited the style of 
Douglas during the debate : "He howled, he ranted, 
he bellowed, he pawed dirt, he shook his head, he turned 
livid in the face, he struck his right hand with his 
left, he foamed at the mouth, he anathematized, he 
cursed, he exulted, he domineered, — he played Douglas." 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 277 

In fact, he was then in an ^'Abolition" belt, and 
his answers were not at all satisfactory to that 
element. In his counter questions, however, he 
compelled Douglas to assert the doctrine of "un- 
friendly legislation," viz., that by police regula- 
tions the States could render the national en- 
forcement of the Dred Scott decision inoperative. 

This doctrine crushed all the life there was 
out of the Douglas boom for the Presidency. 
When Congress met, the South put Benjamin, of 
Louisiana, forward as their spokesman to serve 
notice on Douglas that he was ''not in it" any 
more as a Presidential candidate, with any show 
of success or of getting the Southern vote. 

Lincoln summed up Douglas's position as fol- 
lows : "The Judge holds that a thing may be law- 
fully driven away from a place where it has a 
lawful right to be." 

At the Brewster House, inFreeport, just before 
the second debate, Lincoln read to Washbume, 
Uncle Sam Hitt, Tom Turner, Judd, and two or 
three others, the questions he was going to spring 
on Douglas. Washburne advised against it. 
Said he : "Douglas will hold that, notwithstand- 
ing the Dred Scott decision, the people can ex- 
clude slavery. You give him the chance and he'll 
beat you on it." "All right," said Lincoln, "then 
that kills him in i860, and that canvass is worth 
a hundred of this. I'm playing for larger game." 
It turned out exactly as he said, attesting the won- 
derful political prescience of Lincoln. 

As Lincoln and I went north en route to the 
fourth debate, to occur at Charleston, September 
18, he informed me of a plan of attack he was go- 
ing to spring upon the Little Giant, which was to 
charge him with adopting the Toombs bill, which 



278 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

would not allow a vote on the Lecompton Consti- 
tution, Douglas's especial pride and boast being 
the allowance of a popular vote — popular sover- 
eignty, as he termed it. 

Douglas's very tame answer attests the sur- 
prise he felt at the shrewd attack. 

The remaining debates were held at Galesburg, 
October 7; Quincy, October 13, and Alton, Oc- 
tober 15. 

Lincoln was successful in securing the popular 
majority, but, owing to a gerrymandered appor- 
tionment, Douglas was elected to the Senate to 
be his own successor. 

The joint debate, nevertheless, gave Lincoln a 
national reputation, and he began to get invita- 
tions to visit other States. During the ensuing 
winter he visited Kansas and was received with 
''open arms." At Leavenworth he came like a 
conqueror ; he never had received such an ovation 
as that before. The whole city joined in the wel- 
come, flags and banners waved, all windows, bal- 
conies, and sidewalks were filled with interested 
humanity, a procession was formed, and he, the 
central figure in it, was escorted to the hotel, 
amid the loud acclaim of the masses. 

During that fall George E. Pugh was run by 
the Democrats of Ohio for Governor, his com- 
petitor being David Tod ; and Douglas went there 
to help Pugh. The Republicans sent for Lincoln, 
and he spoke at Columbus and Cincinnati. His 
speeches on those occasions were among the very 
best speeches he ever made. 

In October, 1859, Lincoln received an invita- 
tion from the Young Men's Republican Associa- 
tion of Brooklyn to deliver an address in Plym- 
outh Church. This he accepted, indicating poli- 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 279 

tics as his theme, and February 27, i860, as the 
date. Throughout the winter he made most 
elaborate preparations, obtaining- his facts from 
^'Eliot's Debates," and writing out the speech in 
full. Reaching New York on February 25 he 
found that he had builded his fame better than he 
knew; that the leading Republican politicians 
were on the qui vive to hear him, and that to cater 
to this demand the place of the speaking had been 
changed to Cooper Institute, in New York City. 
When he appeared in this hall of so many stirring 
memories he found it packed, standing room be- 
ing at a premium. The great platform was full 
of the most renowned Republican political leaders 
in New York and Brooklyn. After an introduc- 
tion by the venerable William Cullen Bryant, in 
fit and complimentary terms, Lincoln delivered 
his address, the most recondite political speech 
made during the pro-slavery debate. 

This great speech is worthy of study. It was 
the last elaborate speech he ever made. In it he 
departed somewhat from his former style. The 
close political student will notice a system, for- 
malism, precision, and rigidity of logic not appar- 
ent in former speeches ; a terseness and vigor of 
language of greater emphasis than was before 
known ; an absolute pruning of all redundancies, 
both in thought and in expression. It was a 
massive structure of unhewn logic, without an in- 
terstice or flaw. Singular to say, the style, in some 
places, is almost precisely that of John C. Cal- 
houn, yet the speech bears the same relation to 
the slavery issue, as it then presented itself, that 
Webster's reply to Hayne bore to "the Constitu- 
tion and the Union" in 1830. It was a dignified, 
stately, solemn declaration of the concrete princi- 



28o LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

pies of liberty as they existed in the minds of the 
American people and as they would be enforced 
by them at the first opportunity. 

It was a genuine revelation and surprise. The 
conservative Evening Post published the speech 
entire the next day by express order of its vener- 
able editor, whose warmest commendation Lin- 
coln also received. The entire press of the city 
eulogized it in the highest terms. On the last day 
of winter, in i860, Mr. Lincoln awoke to find 
himself famous ; on the first day of winter in 
i860, he was President-elect of this mighty na- 
tion. 

I can hardly portray the exhibition which Mr. 
Lincoln made of himself on the occasion of this 
trip. Knowing that he would be on dress parade, 
he went to a clothing store in Springfield, before 
he started, and procured a brand-new suit of 
ready-made clothes. Of course, they did not fit 
him — no ready-made suit ever did — so, in order 
to make the trousers appear long enough they 
were loosely braced, with the result of bagginess 
about the waist and thighs. In order that the 
waist of the coat should be near the right place, a 
garment was chosen in which the tails were too 
short, and the rest of it was too full. Packed in 
a valise the suit became badly wrinkled on the 
trip East, and when Lincoln donned it on the 
night of his speech it presented a series of ridges 
and valleys like the inequalities of a washboard, 
and exhibited telltale creases which made even 
Lincoln feel ill at ease, for the audience on the 
platform contained the elite of New York poli- 
ticians, dressed in the most genteel fashion. 

Lincoln was more embarrassed at the com- 
mencement than ever before on a like occasion; 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 281 

yet, being satisfied himself with his speech, and 
seeing, as he progressed, that his audience was 
also satisfied, he was very soon ''on his native 
heath." However much of rusticity there was in 
his appearance, there was no flavor of the camp 
or backwoods in his performance, and his audi- 
tory entirely forgot the homeliness of the orator 
in the charm of the oration. 

After the meeting was over Mr. Lincoln was 
introduced to a great many of the leading men, 
and had quite an ovation. His timidity and em- 
barrassment about his clothes had worn off, and 
he was as ''free and easy" as he would have been 
in an Illinois crowd. The Athenaeum Club invited 
him to its rooms, where they had a fine supper 
spread, and Lincoln was the lion of the hour. 
There was no formality, but there was, indeed, "a 
feast of reason and flow of soul" which lasted till 
the "wee sma' hours." Mr. Lincoln was perfectly 
at home. He 

. . . tauld his queerest stories 

with the result that the solemn walls of the club 
had never before echoed to such hilarity, and 
when the party broke up, and two gentlemen 
escorted Lincoln to the Astor House, every one of 
the party was pleased with himself and with all 
mankind. 

Lincoln was not a stoic, neither was he an 
epicurean; but he was human, and on this occa- 
sion he acted on the adage, "when you have a 
good thing keep it." Consequently, he remained 
in this city for several days, seeing it in a judi- 
cious, moral way. 

Invitations came from many parts of New Eng- 
land to him to stop in their towns and cities and 



282 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

address them. It was known that he was to visit 
Exeter, where his son Robert was attending Phil- 
hps Academy, and he started on his tour of New 
England conquest. On March 5 he was at Hart- 
ford, and was escorted to the City Hall by the first 
company that had been organized of "Wide 
Awakes," those marching bands that played a 
conspicuous part in the campaign of that fall all 
over the country. Next day some of the leading 
citizens formed a committee of escort and showed 
him all over the city; that evening he spoke at 
New Haven to an immense audience. Next even- 
ing he spoke at Meriden; at Woonsocket, R. I., 
on March 7; and at Norwich, Conn., March 8, 
and at Bridgeport, March 10. He met with a con- 
tinued ovation everywhere. His success was ex- 
traordinary, the sledge-hammer logic of the lUi- 
nois prairies wonderfully pleasing his audience. 
At New Haven, the Professor of Rhetoric of 
Yale College attended at his speech and gave a 
lecture on its rhetorical style the next day to his 
class. That evening, taking the train for Meri- 
den, he heard him the ensuing night for the same 
purpose. Lincoln was informed of this, and was 
very much astonished at it. Having visited his 
son, he turned homeward, remaining over Sunday 
at New York, where he heard Beecher preach for 
the second time that trip. Then he returned to 
Springfield, having been absent four weeks. He 
was perfectly satisfied with his trip, there not hav- 
ing been a single contretemps or error in it ; it was 
an unmistakable conqueror's march. 

The public man who builds up a career while 
in official position has infinite advantages over the 
unofficial one. The former can impress his prin- 
ciples upon laws and measures of legislation — 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 283 

can make himself concretely felt, and of actual 
use and acquire popularity by deeds. He can also 
speak in a greater or lesser degree ex cathedra, 
with the voice of authority, and gain listening 
ears. He has access to archives and bureaus, and 
documents, and his utterances, however rapid, 
will command respect and attention. ''Hear me 
for my cause," he can say. The unofficial man 
must be of exceptional intellectual altitude to 
tower above his fellows. His voice must have a 
mighty diapason to be heard above the din. He 
must be a giant, indeed, if from his lowly position 
he can compete with the officially favored. Mr. 
Seward had been in official position for many 
years ; had been, as it were, the official head of the 
Republican party, its guide, counsellor, and friend. 
He was the idol of the Empire State, and almost 
equally the idol of New England. His volubility 
and classicity of speech, and profundity of argu- 
ment were wonderful, and he was a leader of 
men. His political conscience was pliable and 
elastic. His principles were, indeed, bounded, but 
the corner posts were a great ways apart. He 
was versatile and prolific of political finesse, and 
also of intrigue. Lincoln was guileless in the 
lower realms of politics, where Seward was 
matchless ; but in the highest realms, Lincoln 
brooked no rival, and he had by unaccredited and 
independent labors on the hustings, within three 
years, placed himself on a conventional equality 
with Seward, with the latter's many years of 
training, and all the auxiliaries of a regency, his 
countless political friends and sycophants. In the 
whole nation Seward had barely one "foeman 
worthy of his steel;" it was Abraham Lincoln. 
At this time the political outlook was cheering 



284 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

for the Republican party. Douglas had been read 
out of the Southern wing of the Democratic party 
for the heresy which Lincoln had forced him to 
at Freeport. As he was the only exponent of his 
peculiar Democracy among the Democratic hosts 
at the North, it was obvious to even the superficial 
observer that, if that convention nominated Doug- 
las the South would bolt and set up a candidate of 
their own; and that if the convention nominated 
any other than Douglas, especially if it did 
the bidding of the pro-slavery leaders, there 
would be no enthusiasm at the North — and the 
nominee of the Republicans would carry most of 
the Northern States. In short, no man but Doug- 
las could hope to carry any of the Northern 
States; and it was apparent that Douglas could 
not carry any of the Southern States unless it 
might be one or two of the border States. 

Norman B. Judd was the member of the Re- 
publican National Committee from Illinois. He 
was a sly, crafty, shrewd politician. While the 
Eastern members were assuming as a postulate 
and foregone conclusion that Seward's nomina- 
tion was an accomplished fact, Judd's artful eye 
saw behind the gossamer veil of their assurance 
a chance for Lincoln, and he commenced his plans 
far ahead to achieve his nomination. Judd was 
also a candidate for the gubernatorial nomination 
in Illinois and hoped that he might achieve both 
his nomination and Lincoln's. Prior to i860, all 
conventions had been held in the East ; Baltimore 
being the great convention city. In fact, nearly 
all the conventions had theretofore been held 
there. Harrison, however, had been nominated at 
Harrisburg, and Fremont at Philadelphia. So 
Judd made the novel proposition in the committee 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 285 

that the convention should be held at Chicago. 
He argued that the Democrats had departed from 
the ancient custom of meeting at Baltimore, and 
were to meet at Charleston ; now, argued he, let 
us follow their example and meet in a region 
where we can make proselytes by the respect 
we pay to that region. He carefully kept *'01d 
Abe" out of sight, and the delegates failed to see 
any personal bearing the place of meeting was to 
have on the nomination. Judd carried his point. 
He was a railway lawyer and he approached the 
various railway companies whose lines were in 
Illinois, and persuaded them to make very cheap 
rates of fare to Chicago during the convention 
week. 

On May 10 the State Convention met at De- 
catur and, selecting delegates to the Chicago Con- 
vention, instructed them to support Lincoln for 
the Presidency. Judd was defeated for the nomi- 
nation for Governor, but was elected as a dele- 
gate-at-large to the convention and chairman of 
the delegation. The convention met in Chicago 
on June 16. The railroads had made a cheap ex- 
cursion rate from all parts of the State, and the 
city was filled to repletion with Illinoisans, all 
brimful of enthusiasm for the railsplitter candi- 
date. The Seward claque was on hand, too, but 
not in such force. This was in every way a no- 
table convention. Not until the middle of May 
was it definitely decided in what hall it should be 
held. The largest hall of the city was the Metro- 
politan, at the corner of Randolph and La Salle 
streets, and it was expected that the convention 
would be held there. In April preceding, Mr. 
Lincoln and I attended an entertainment in that 
hall, and we then talked of the possible scenes to 



286 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

be witnessed there two months later. But sagac- 
ity ruled the hour. An immense crowd would be 
in the city ready to shout for Uncle Abe, and this 
hall would not contain a tithe of them. 

In the early days of Chicago one of the chief 
hotels had been the Sauganash, kept by Alderman 
John Murphy and located at the southeast corner 
of Market and Lake streets. The Sauganash, 
however, had gone the way of all sublunary things 
and fallen into desuetude. At the time of which 
I write no structure was left. The site where it 
had been was low, covered with stagnant water 
and varied by the appearance of sundry tin cans, 
hoop-skirts, dead cats, and other debris attendant 
upon civic progress. The Market Street front 
presented a wide expanse, ample enough to ac- 
commodate any probable overflow from a conven- 
tion hall. The site was at once secured, and a 
two-story frame structure erected which was, 
vv^ith no apparent sense or propriety, termed "The 
Wigwam." The Tremont House, five blocks east, 
was chosen as the headquarters of the Lincoln 
coterie, while the Richmond House was the head- 
quarters of the Seward contingent. Right op- 
posite the Tremont House the Journal, the even- 
ing Republican paper of the city, had its offlcc, 
which was gay with banners, among which was 
one with the name: SEWARD. 

David Davis, Stephen T. Logan, Leonard 
Swett, and Jesse K. Dubois were the leaders of 
the Lincoln forces, and they opened headquarters 
with a very feeble prospect in view, as things then 
appeared. The house was mainly filled with the 
Seward contingent, finely appearing and emi- 
nently talented men, with national reputations. 

The leader was he of the Mephistophelian vis- 



ATTAINMENT OF. THE PRESIDENCY 287 

age, Thurlow Weed. There were George William 
Curtis, William M. Evarts, William Curtis 
Noyes, Joshua R. Giddings, Horace Greeley, 
David K. Cartter, John A. Andrew, Austin Blair, 
Carl Schurz, Caleb B. Smith, Richard Yates, 
Ozias M. Hatch, George Ashmun, William D. 
Kelley, Edwin D. Morgan, David Wilmot, George 
S. Boutwell, Frank P. Blair Sr., John A. Kasson, 
William T. Otto, Amos Tuck, Andrew Reeder, 
Thomas Corwin, Columbus Delano, — all of na- 
tional renown. Even the Times, the Douglas or- 
gan, was forced to admit that it was a remarkably 
fine-looking body of men. 

All was bustle and excitement, but everything 
was done with good nature. The original candi- 
dates were William H. Seward, Abraham Lin- 
coln, Edward Bates, John McLean, — old Whigs ; 
and Simon Cameron, Benjamin F. Wade, Salmon 
P. Chase, Nathaniel P. Banks — old-line Demo- 
crats. It became early apparent that the struggle 
would be between the two first named, and in 
point of fact Banks and Wade were dropped out 
of consideration before the convention met, which 
still left two Ohio men in the contest, McLean 
and Chase. Greeley was not an accredited dele- 
gate from his own State, but, as Oregon was then 
a great way off, the party there had delegated 
Greeley to appear for them, which he did. His 
efforts were in favor of ''anybody to beat Sew- 
ard," and, considering Edward Bates, of Mis- 
souri, as the one best fitted to do it, he worked 
with the Blairs and with Maryland and Missouri 
to achieve that end. Yet on the day the conven- 
tion met his paper published a telegram from him 
saying: ''My conclusion, from all that I can 
gather, is that the opposition to Governor Sew- 



288 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

ard cannot concentrate on any candidate, and that 
he will be nominated." 

Greeley, at that time, was a pariah among the 
delegates. On the Sunday morning before the 
convention I met him in Clark Street, coming 
from the Lake Shore Depot en route to the Tre- 
mont House, nearly a mile away, lugging a huge 
leather satchel, which he would change from one 
hand to the other every little while. There were 
but few people on the street at the time, but he 
would look into the faces of all whom he met with 
an air of bucolic simplicity. He was snubbed in 
the convention, as he really represented no con- 
stituency. There were but few Republicans in 
Democratic Oregon, and his sole weight in the 
convention was that of one vote. The New York 
delegates hardly knew him personally. 

Nearly the entire delegation from Indiana 
came there with the specific design of securing 
control of the fat Interior Department in case of 
Republican success. They had agreed on a secre- 
tary of that department — Caleb B. Smith ; a Com- 
missioner of Indian Affairs, WilHam P. Dole, 
formerly of Indiana ; and on candidates for some 
of the minor offices. They then opened their po- 
litical huckster shop and spread out their votes 
for inspection. As there was close intercom- 
munication between Illinois and Indiana, and 
Lincoln had served in Congress with Smith, it 
was quite natural that they should give Illinois 
their support. The bargain was very soon made. 
Caleb B. Smith was to be Secretary of the In- 
terior, Dole Commissioner of Indian Affairs ; and 
the vote of Indiana was to be solid for Lincoln. 
He, therefore, started in with the votes of Indiana 
and Illinois. 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 289 

The next block of votes that was lying around 
loose was the Cameron strength in Pennsylvania. 
This was more difficult to manage. Not having 
yet been made acquainted with Lincoln's ethical 
tendencies, Davis got Dubois to telegraph to Lin- 
coln that they could secure the Cameron delegates 
from Pennsylvania if they might promise Cam- 
eron the Treasury. Lincoln replied : *T author- 
ize no bargains and will be bound by none." Just 
ten words — the normal length of a telegraphic 
message ! Not satisfied with this, however, he 
sent a copy of the Missouri Democrat to Herndon 
with three extracts from Seward's speeches 
marked ; and on the margin of which he had writ- 
ten: *T agree with Seward's 'irrepressible con- 
flict,' but do not agree with his 'higher law' doc- 
trine." And he added, ''Make no contracts that 
will bind me," 

Everybody was mad, of course. Here were 
men working night and day to place him on the 
highest mountain peak of fame, and he pulling 
back all he knew how. What was to be done? 
The bluff Dubois said : ''Damn Lincoln !" The 
polished Swett said, in mellifluous accents : "I 
am very sure if Lincoln was aware of the necessi- 
ties " The critical Logan expectorated 

viciously, and said: "The main difficulty with 

Lincoln is " Herndon ventured : "Now, 

friend, I'll answer that." But Davis cut the Gor- 
dian knot by brushing all aside with : "Lincoln 
ain't here, and don't know what we have to meet, 
so we will go ahead, as if we hadn't heard from 
him, and he must ratify it. The Cameron contin- 
gent was secured for Lincoln on the second vote. 

The convention met and the Seward claque was 
allowed to fill the hall to repletion. An organiza- 



290 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

tion was effected by calling David Wilmot (of 
''proviso" fame) to the chair. The various com- 
mittees were appointed. 

The second day was consumed in settling the 
rules and the platform. The Seward claque 
had ''open sesame" on this day likewise. The 
platform was adopted. 

When the second plank in the platform was 
reported, it did not have the quotation from the 
Declaration of Independence in it, and Joshua R. 
Giddings moved to put it in ; but the convention, 
somehow, was timid and afraid to do it. Gid- 
dings became so disgusted and demoralized at 
this result that he left the convention. After- 
wards, however, the matter was reconsidered, 
and George W. Curtis made a brief speech in 
which he shamed the convention for refusing to 
repeat the sentiments of the Continental Con- 
gress, and the quotation was adopted nem. con. 

Next day the balloting was to take place, and 
by a political "turn of the wrist," known only to 
wicked Chicago, when the Seward claque were 
prepared to occupy the main floor of the hall as 
before, the same was preoccupied by the Lincoln 
claque. To the consternation of the Seward fol- 
lowing they had to be content with their two days' 
largess, already enjoyed, in which there was no 
political utility. The convention was opened and 
the following candidates were put in nomination : 

William H. Seward, of New York, nominated 
by William M. Evarts ; Abraham Lincoln, of Illi- 
nois, nominated by Norman B. Judd ; William L. 
Dayton, of New Jersey; Simon Cameron, of 
Pennsylvania; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio; Ed- 
ward Bates, of Missouri; Jacob Collamer, of 
Vermont; John McLean, of Ohio. 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 291 

Balloting began. On the first ballot, Seward 
received I73>^ votes; Lincoln, 102 votes; Cam- 
eron, 5o>^ votes; Chase, 49 votes; Bates, 48 
votes; Dayton, 14 votes; McLean, 12 votes; Col- 
lamer, 10 votes ; with scattering votes for Wade, 
Reed, Sumner, and Fremont. 

On the second ballot Lincoln received the 
larger part of the votes that had been cast on the 
first ballot as complimentary to State favorites 
who stood no chance of being nominated. All 
of Collamer's came to him, 44 of Cameron's, 6 of 
Chase's, 6 of McLean's, etc. He gained 79 votes 
while Seward gained but 11, making the total: 
Seward, 184^; Lincoln, 181; the field, 99^. 

On the third ballot, this current of votes flow- 
ing to Lincoln became a flood, even Seward los- 
ing 4^ votes. Of the 465 ballots cast, Lincoln 
received 231^, and Seward 180. 233 votes were 
necessary to a choice. David K. Cartter, of 
Ohio, then sprang upon his chair and announced 
a change of four votes from his State from Chase 
to Lincoln, completing his nomination. Delega- 
tion vied with delegation in changing to Lincoln, 
making his nomination virtually unanimous, 
and it was formally so ratified on the motion of 
William M. Evarts, of New York. 

The nominations were then completed by the 
selection of Senator Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, 
and the convention adjourned, while the city was 
intoxicated with joy.* 

* At the earnest request of Jesse K. Dubois, I hunted 
up W. R. Arthur, Superintendent of the Illinois Central 
Railroad, whom I found at McVicker's Theatre, and 
got an order for a special train to go via Toledo to 
Springfield in advance of the Committee, and to carry 
Dubois, Bill Butler, Judge Logan, and other of Lin- 
coln's neighbors, so they could fix up things before 
the Committee should reach Springfield. 



292 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

During the sitting of the convention Lincoln 
had been trying, in one way and another, to keep 
down the excitement which was pent up within 
him, playing billiards a little, town ball a little, 
and story-telling a little. When the news actually 
reached him he was in the editorial office of the 
Journal. He got up at once and allowed a little 
crowd to shake hands with him mechanically, 
then said : *'I reckon there's a little short woman 
down at our house that would like to hear the 
news," and he started with rapid strides for 
home. 

The canvass which ensued was spirited, Doug- 
las leading a forlorn hope by canvassing person- 
ally and making speeches in all parts of the coun- 
try where he thought he had any prospect of 
catching votes. It was a very humiliating and for 
that time unique spectacle. Never before had a 
man seeking this most exalted position gone about 
personally soliciting votes. The whole country 
was aroused. The ''Wide Awakes" evoked the 
enthusiasm of the superficial, and the leading poli- 
ticians were all active and enthusiastic on the 
stump, appealing to the patriotism and reason of 
the thinking masses. The State elections which 
took place in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania 
went so overwhelmingly Republican as to leave 
scarcely any doubt of Lincoln's election, but when 
the returns actually came in they were more than 
satisfactory. 

The result was as follows : 

Popular Vote. Electoral Vote. 

Lincoln .... 1,857,610 Lincoln 180 

Douglas .... 1,365,976 Breckinridge .... 72 

Breckinridge . 847,953 Bell 39 

Bell ...... 590,631 Douglas 12 



ATTAINMENT OF THE PRESIDENCY 293 

February 13 following, John C. Breckinridge 
himself, resisting all allurements held out to him 
by those who supported him and by his political 
friends, then acting like a true man and a man 
of honor, presided over the canvass of votes and 
declared that Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal 
Hamlin, having received the greatest number of 
votes for President and Vice President, respect- 
ively, were President and Vice President elect. 



I 



CHAPTER XV 

INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT 

On the first day of February, 1861, Mr. Lin- 
coln and myself, designing to go East for about 
one hundred miles, left his house, and proceeded 
part of the way ''across lots," to the Great West- 
ern Depot (now Wabash), on which line I had 
procured a pass for him. His baggage consisted 
of an old carpetbag which he had carried on the 
circuit for several years, and which was well worn 
and was in a state of collapse. No crowd then 
attended our truly democratic departure. Ten 
days later he again visited the same depot, but the 
incidents then were like to those of a royal prog- 
gress, for he was then en route to the perform- 
ance of the greatest mission ever entrusted to a 
mortal man. 

A special train was provided, and the following 
named persons were of the party : Mrs. Lincoln 
and the three sons, Robert Todd, William Wal- 
lace, and Thomas (nicknamed 'Tad") ; Governor 
Yates, ex-Governor John Moore, Norman B. 
Judd, David Davis, Orville H. Browning, B. 
Forbes, Dr. W. S. Wallace (the President's 
brother-in-law), Ward H. Lamon, George C. 
Latham, Elmer E. Ellsworth, Lockwood Todd, 
Colonel E. V. Sumner, U. S. A.; Captain John 
Pope, Major David Hunter, George W. Hazard, 
J. M. Burgess, John G. Nicolay, and John Hay. 
294 



INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT 295 

The train was under the charge of General W. S. 
Wood.* 

When the party was embarked Mr. Lincoln ap- 
peared on the back platform, and in an abstracted 
way, gazing mournfully at the little concourse of 
people who had assembled, made a valedictory to 
his townsmen, which was filled with religious 
emotion. 

The train then moved eastward and the Presi- 
dent-elect remained on the platform until the en- 
larging fields and diminishing houses indicated 
that he was beyond the Hmits of the city where he 
had achieved national fame ; but he did not then 
know though he did fear that it was his last lin- 
gering glance. 

On this journey the President spoke at Indian- 
apolis, once to the citizens, and once to the Legis- 
lature; at Cincinnati, at Columbus, before the 
Legislature ; at Steubenville ; Pittsburg ; Cleve- 
land; Buffalo; Albany (twice) ; New York City 
(several times) ; Trenton (three times, once be- 
fore the Legislature) ; Philadelphia (twice) ; and 
Harrisburg, before the Legislature ; besides mak- 
ing short formal remarks at stopping-places along 
the route. [The text of these addresses will be 
found in Speeches, in the present edition.] 

Throughout the long journey the highest 
demonstrations of respect and honor were ac- 
corded by the people of all parties and classes 
toward their future Chief Magistrate. Even 
Fernando Wood, then Mayor of New York, made 
an unobjectionable, though not very cordial, 

* Three of this party were army officers sent by Gen- 
eral Scott and two were detectives furnished by Pinker- 
ton. Some of the party left en route. Judd left at 
Harrisburg on the train after Lincoln. 



296 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

speech of welcome, while nearly all the addresses 
of welcome were couched in such terms of respect 
and veneration as to leave no doubt of the excel- 
lent disposition generally entertained ; and the en- 
thusiasm of the masses attested the public devo- 
tion alike to the person of their Executive and 
social head and to the Government, then believed 
to be seriously imperilled. 

In all places through which the train was to 
pass, great crowds were assembled, and not a 
single disparaging remark was uttered audibly. 
Apparently all was amity and good feeling, and 
those who had cast their votes for another were 
not at all displeased at the hearty enthusiasm 
evoked in which likewise they, in many instances, 
joined. Business was suspended in many places 
and a holiday taken. Gay equipages were pro- 
vided for the presidential party, and the streets 
through which the cavalcade was to pass were 
profusely decorated with the highest artistic taste 
and patriotic design. The star-spangled banner 
was regnant and exalted. 

At Indianapolis, a Republican Governor, Mor- 
ton, greeted him; at Cincinnati, a Democratic 
Mayor. At Buffalo he was welcomed by Millard 
Fillmore, one of his predecessors ; at Albany by 
Governor Morgan ; and at New York City by that 
ne plus ultra of Democrats, Fernando Wood. At 
several places, as Syracuse and Hudson, plat- 
forms were erected, the design being that the 
President-elect should speak from them; but to 
accomplish that would have produced an unwar- 
rantable delay, and he was obliged to decline. 

The author of the ''Reply to Hayne" once at- 
tempted to make a ''by-the-way" speech at Alton, 
and the editor of the paper reported that '*he beat 



INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT 297 

the air and bellowed and said nothing." So again 
at Rochester, after vainly attempting to say some- 
thing for a long time, the eloquent defender of the 
Constitution abruptly closed by venturing, "I'm 
told you have a 175-foot waterfall here ; no people 
ever lost their liberty who had such a high water- 
fall as that." 

In a similarly false and illogical position was 
Mr. Lincoln placed when he made his Eastern 
tour in February, 1861. His important speeches 
in prior canvasses had been widely heralded, and 
his fame had acquired strength and momentum 
by a persistency of iteration and reiteration. 
Great intellectual feats were expected from his 
reported ability, and high moral and political ut- 
terances from his unique position, while obvious 
policy and imperious necessity demanded that he 
keep his best thoughts to himself, yet with no 
studied appearance of having done so. The net 
result of all was that he was expected to entertain 
the thronging masses, to make a favorable and 
popular impression, and yet omit all significant 
reference to that very line of remark which the 
people wanted to hear. In the first place Lincoln 
was that style of orator and man of the world 
who could not talk effectively about nothing. 
He must have something to say and somebody to 
convince.* 

* The masked contempt with which both the "out- 
going" and "incoming" President were regarded in 
some quarters, will be shown by this incident. The 
Cleveland Plain Dealer had a cut representing "Old 
Buck" resigning the Chair of State to Lincoln. The 
Chair is in a most dilapidated condition. The dia- 
logue was thus: Buchanan: "Mr. Lincoln, Sir, it is 
with infernal satisfaction I eurrender to you the Presi- 
dential chair, not so sound, it is true, as when I took 



298 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

In view of these drawbacks he spoke well, but 
did not equal public expectation. The people 
longed to hear from his lips the avowal of a de- 
fined and trenchant policy toward the incipient 
treason which was becoming epidemic in the cot- 
ton-growing States. They earnestly desired that 
he should exhibit a certificate that even as the 
crisis had come so also had come the man. Had 
he simply declared, as he did on May 29, 1856, the 
integrity of the Union, no limit could have been 
assigned to the spontaneous enthusiasm which he 
might have evoked. But he knew the dizzy em- 
inence whereon he stood, and the gravity of the 
political situation better than the public, and it 
was quite clear to him that his paramount duty 
Avas to allow no obstacle to intervene between the 
anomalous political situation and the acquisition 
of the helm of State, not to alarm or inflame the 
conservative Southern mind and the border slave 
States, nor weaken the alliance or devotion of 
the Northern Democratic party to the Union. 

Accordingly at Springfield, Vv^here he made his 
first speech, he merely took an affectionate leave 
of his neighbors, without any exhibition of his 
political intent. A similar policy controlled him 
at Tolono, where he, with excellent taste and dis- 

it. You will observe, before settin' down, that I've 
broke its hack and bust its bottom. Nevertheless, 
what is left of it is yours. Take it, and make your- 
self as happy as you can." 

Lincoln: 'Thank you, Mr. Buchannon— thank you. 
I accept this Cheer, Sir, with pleasure, Sir. I see 
'nothing the matter' vv^ith it ; 'nobody hurt.' If I fail to 
fill it. Sir, I hope to make up in length what I may 
fall short in breadth." The expressions, it will be 
remembered, are some rather vapid ones used by Mr. 
Lincoln en route to Washington. 



INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT 2 99 

cretion, said : *'I am leaving you on an errand 
of national importance, attended, as you are 
aware, with considerable difficulties. Let us be- 
lieve, as some poet has expressed it, 'Behind the 
cloud, the sun is still shining.' " 

His second speech at Indianapolis, however, 
should have satisfied any reasonable, conservative 
citizen, for he then and there, in an undemon- 
strative, tentative, and indirect way, gave ample 
assurance that ''the Federal Union must and shall 
be preserved." 

Nor could anything have been in better taste or 
more neatly done than his almost total self-abne- 
gation and his delegation of the responsibilities of 
the crisis upon the people themselves. The peo- 
ple are prone to fallaciously reason that a ruler 
has some occult power and unusual personal in- 
terest in the Government. The President-elect, 
at Indianapolis, conclusively dispelled this vain 
idea in a single sentence, thus : 'Tt is your busi- 
ness and not mine. If the Union of these States 
and the liberties of this people shall be lost, it is 
but little to any one man of fifty-two years of age, 
but a great deal to the thirty millions of people 
who inhabit these United States, and to their 
posterity in all coming time." 

In addition to his elaborate speeches he spoke 
at many of the way places briefly. It will be 
noted that this journey was very shrewdly 
planned, and gave the President-elect an oppor- 
tunity to impress himself upon the Legislatures 
of the five great States of Indiana, Ohio, New 
York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I am in- 
clined to think that the public generally was dis- 
appointed at the reticence manifested by him as to 
his policy, and at the intellectual feebleness of his 



300 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

speeches. The crisis demanded a great leader, the 
people wanted assurances that he was one, and, 
if he had emitted Jacksonian flashes of patriotic 
fire, enthusiasm would have gathered force, like 
ocean waves. This, however, would have been 
of questionable wisdom. As I have said, Lincoln 
was better informed of the status of affairs than 
the public, and he knew of the supreme impor- 
tance of getting control of the Government before 
any emeute or disturbance was made. 

On the night of February 22-23 I passed 
through Harrisburg, en route for Philadelphia; 
and, on arising in the morning, was surprised to 
find my friend, Norman B. Judd, on the train. 
He informed me that he had come on board at 
Harrisburg; and in reply to my questions he in- 
dicated that he had grown so nervous at the noise 
and excitement of the journey with the President 
that he had concluded to slip quietly away where 
he could get some rest and tranquillity. He ques- 
tioned me as to what I had heard about the jour- 
ney so closely as to arouse my curiosity, and he 
whispered to me significantly, 'T'U tell you more 
when we get to Philadelphia." What he had to 
tell I will now narrate substantially as he told it 
to me. Before I parted with Judd, we mentally 
thanked God that our friend, the President-elect, 
was safe in Washington. "You see," Judd said, 
^Tinkerton (our Pinkerton) had been engaged by 
the Philadelphia and Baltimore Railroad to watch 
their road, which there was reason to believe 
would be assailed at some point by the rebs to de- 
stroy communication with the North; and while 
so engaged, he learned that a plot was being 
worked up to assassinate Lincoln while he was 
passing through Baltimore. He informed me of 



INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT Zoi 

this in a letter which was deHvered to me at the 
Burnet House in Cincinnati, but which I kept 
entirely private, not telling any of the party. 
Pinkerton also stated that he would advise me 
further during our progress eastward. I promptly 
replied to him, acknowledging receipt of his note, 
and urging him to prosecute his research. While 
we were at Buffalo on Sunday, I received another 
letter, saying that he was pursuing investigations 
and would keep me advised. On reaching the 
Astor House, at New York, I was summoned to 
a certain room in the upper part of the hotel. I 
found there a lady who gave her name as War- 
ner (I think) and who had a letter from Pinker- 
ton, introducing her as the chief of his female de- 
tective department. Her object in coming was to 
arrange a meeting for me with Pinkerton himself 
at Philadelphia. No place was then designated, 
but we agreed that I should be notified then. It 
seemed quite unnecessary to send a woman clear 
to New York to do what a telegram or letter 
would have done as well. Mysteries increased, 
for when I got to Philadelphia a man passed 
through the crowd, and gave me a fictitious ad- 
dress at the St. Louis Hotel. There I found 
Pinkerton under an assumed name awaiting me 
and with him Mr. Felton, president of the Balti- 
more Railroad. From their representations I be- 
came satisfied that a well-matured and organized 
plot did exist to kill Lincoln in Baltimore ; and I 
then saw that something must be done. I ar- 
ranged to have Pinkerton meet me at my room 
at the Continental, and sent for Lincoln, whom 
Pinkerton informed of the whole affair, strongly 
urging that the President go on through secretly 
that night. Lincoln was fully impressed with the 



302 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

gravity of the situation and the necessity of ac- 
tion ; but he was resolute in his purpose to raise 
the flag on Independence Hall and meet the Leg- 
islature at Harrisburg the next day. After that, 
he said, he would do as I said. I then had a con- 
ference with the officials of both railways, the 
telegraph people, and Pinkerton; and developed 
the following plan, which has been strictly fol- 
lowed, so far as I know : Lincoln should fill all 
of his appointments, and leave Harrisburg at six 
o'clock Friday evening on a special train for Phil- 
adelphia, at which hour the telegraph wires 
should be cut at Harrisburg; the Baltimore trairi 
should be held at Philadelphia till Lincoln was 
aboard, and then go on to Baltimore ; Hill Lamon 
should go with Lincoln all the way, and Pinker- 
ton should meet Lincoln and Lamon at Philadel- 
phia, and go with them clear through ; and Pink- 
erton should have some one secure the sleeping 
car sections from Philadelphia to Washington in 
rear of car, and Lincoln should be represented as 
an invalid. I was up nearly all night, getting 
these arrangements made, which none of our 
party as yet knew about, although they saw that 
something was ?//>. When Lincoln got up next 
morning he found Fred. Seward there with a mes- 
sage from his father to the effect that he must 
come to Washington in a clandestine manner, as 
he had authentic evidence of the existence of a 
conspiracy to kill him as he attempted to go 
through Baltimore. This, of course, confirmed 
the wisdom of my plans, as Seward's information 
came from other sources than ours. I dismissed 
young Seward with a message to his father that 
Mr. Lincoln would reach Washington at six 
o'clock next morning. I then disclosed the 



• INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT S^S 

arrangements I had made to Lincoln, who 
was perfectly unexcited, but agreed to all. 
I told him I wanted the judgment of others 
of our party, to which he agreed; accord- 
ingly I got Davis, Sumner, Pope, and 
Hunter, and one or two others together and 
briefly told them what I knew, and what I had 
done. Davis was quite sceptical, I think because 
of the stigma which would rest on Maryland, 
where he came from ; but finally, after insinua- 
tions of doubt on his part, both of the facts and 
wisdom of my plan, he said : 'Well, Lincoln, 
you have heard the whole story, what do you 
think about it yourself?' Lincoln replied quite 
carelessly : 'I've thought the matter over fully 
and reckon I had better do as Judd says. The 
facts come from two different and reliable 
sources, and I don't consider it right to disregard 
both.' 'That settles it,' said Davis, a trifle dis- 
appointed, I think, first because it was a slight on 
his State, second because it was my plan, and 
third because he had a poor opinion of detective 
business. Sumner was angry at the selection of 
Lamon, and he said grimly: 'One thing I want 
distinctly understood, that I'm going to Washing- 
ton with the President. Such were my orders 
from General Scott, and I'm going to carry them 
out.' We all tried to reason him out of it, but 
made no impression at all and I was then sorry I 
told him anything about it. In fact, I am sorry I 
told anybody, for I have got in trouble with Sum- 
ner and it has done no good anyway. However, 
Sumner kept strict watch, and when Lincoln left 
the dinner table at Harrisburg, just before six, 
Sumner was on hand. I instructed Lamon what 
to do, and as Lincoln and he got in the carriage 



304 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

to go i diverted Sumner's attention for a single 
moment, which threw him off his guard, arkd 
when he turned to get in the carriage, as he had in- 
tended, it was out of reach, the horses galloping on 
the way to the train. Sumner, to carry out his pro- 
gram, should have followed, of course, but he 
was stunned with anger, and lost his presence of 
mind. I never got such a scoring in all my life — 
I was fearful he would assault me. However, I 
was so glad that my scheme went through with 
nothing but a 'cussin ' that on the whole I felt 
good over it, though I did not get a wink of sleep 
that night except what little I got on the train be- 
fore I saw you. I came on to Philadelphia by the 
first train to get the news and to be within tele- 
graphic reach and do anything necessary, for, of 
course, I could not be certain what might happen. 
I now see that so much planning and letting so 
many in the secret, at a time when we were all on 
public exhibition, was not the right way to do it." 
Judd also informed me that his reasons for 
selecting Lamon were : First, Lamon was a 
Southerner — had the Southern dialect and ap- 
pearance — and if any parleying should be neces- 
sary, he could ward off suspicion as to his charge 
better than a Northern man could, since it would 
not be presumed that a Southerner would have 
Lincoln in charge. Second, Lamon habitually 
carried two revolvers in a belt so ostentatiously 
that I knew it, and I believed he would use them 
effectively if necessary. Third, Lamon was not 
known as Sumner or Hunter was. Judd also in- 
formed me that Lincoln was to be represented as 
a sick man, and that when the conductor came 
around one of the party was to give him the 
tickets which had been bought for the President. 



INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT S^S 

''Lincoln," said Judd, "was disguised no further 
than this : He wore the bobtail overcoat he had 
used all winter, and had a shawl, and soft felt hat 
he had borrowed for the trip. I have no doubt an 
attempt would have been made to kill him, but I 
also think, as we knew it in advance, we could 
have prevented it ; but with the warnings we had 
it would have been criminal to have let the Presi- 
dent be exposed to a needless risk for the sake of 
appearance. I will say that Lincoln did not show 
the least excitement or fear throughout, but took 
a sensible and unexcited view of it, and demeaned 
himself just as he would had Davis or any other 
of the party been the person in danger. 

*'I reached Baltimore," concluded Judd, "in the 
afternoon of the day Lincoln had passed through, 
and though it was rainy, I was out on the streets 
during the rest of that and the next day (Sunday) 
and was a witness of the deep disappointment felt 
by the roustabouts, street loafers, and low orders, 
that the President-elect was safely at Washing- 
ton. At that time, I felt fully assured that a 
deep-laid plot for his assassination had been 
formed. I deem it idle to argue against this 
theory. It is a well-attested fact." 

Just as daylight was breaking on the morning 
of Saturday, February 23, 1861, the night train 
from Philadelphia rolled, as usual, into the sole 
and dingy depot at Washington. The pas- 
sengers hastily debarked and made their way 
through the narrow shed towards the exit in 
front, the last to leave being a party of three, one 
of whom, attired in a soft felt hat and bobtail 
overcoat resembling a sailor's pea-jacket, would 
have been noticeable anywhere from the contrast 
in the length of the man and the brevity of his 



3o6 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

outward integuments, for his coat and pantaloons 
were altogether too brief for their wearer. But 
there were no spectators to take note of these 
peculiarities except one muffled-up individual who 
had long been standing in the shadow of a pillar 
and who hastily emerged as this party came for- 
ward, exclaiming, "You can't play that on me, 
Abe." The man in the pea-jacket overcoat ex- 
claimed heartily, to all whom it might concern, 
"It's Washburne." Then the whole party shook 
hands all around, and all four, getting into a hack, 
were driven to the ladies' entrance of Willard's 
Hotel. These, and about three other persons, 
alone of the whole slumbrous city, were aware that 
the President-elect, the man whose name was in 
every newspaper in the entire civilized world, had 
thus clandestinely and furtively come to assume 
the charge of the Government. 

Mr. Judd and Judge Davis each assured me 
afterward that they believed that a well-devel- 
oped attempt would have been made to assassi- 
nate the President had he gone openly through 
Baltimore ; but Mr. Lincoln said to me afterward : 
'T do not think I should have been killed, or even 
that a serious attempt would have been made to 
kill me unless some excitement had arisen ; but 
Judd and other cool heads thought I had better 
take the course I did, and I reckon they were 
right; it ain't best to run a risk of any conse- 
quence for looks' sake." 

A suite of rooms had been engaged for the 
President and his family on the second floor of 
Willard's, just over the main entrance and front- 
ing on Pennsylvania Avenue, and thither Mr. Lin- 
coln was at once conducted, where he proceeded 
to make a hasty toilet. While he was thus en- 



INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT 307 

gaged Senator Seward came hastily in, much 
disconcerted to know that he had misapprehended 
the hour of arrival and had lost the opportunity 
to greet his chief at the depot. He was heartily 
welcomed, and sat down to breakfast shortly 
thereafter in the private parlor in company with 
the President-elect and Washburne. At table 
a general view of the political horizon was taken, 
and the necessities of the hour canvassed. 

Later in the day the members of the ^'Peace 
Conference" visited Lincoln and were presented 
to him. One of them, L. E. Chittenden, relates 
that Lincoln had an apt word for each of them 
and that he committed no mistake at all ; that he 
answered every Union man in words of cheer and 
encouragement and every Secessionist according 
to his folly. Mr. Chittenden says of the incom- 
ing President : **He was able to take care of him- 
.self. He could not have appeared more natural 
or unstudied in his manner if he had been enter- 
taining a company of neighbors in his Western 
home." 

On the ensuing eight days Lincoln was occu- 
pied in receiving calls from party leaders, holding 
consultations on the subject of his Cabinet, not yet 
definitely settled, and other matters of policy in 
connection with the mighty trust underlined for 
him on the programme of history. 

Among other privileges which he availed him- 
self of was the making of a visit to the Capitol, 
which he had not seen since the summer of 1849, 
when he made a hurried visit to Washington to 
see President Taylor. Since then the plain and 
sombre hall of the Lower House had been con- 
verted into a gallery for statuary, and the Senate 
had left its original hall, so rich with classical 



3o8 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

memories. Both deliberative bodies novvr sat 
in gaudy chambers indicative of the change from 
the sober days of stagecoach simplicity. Here 
the President-elect was received with enthusiasm 
by the loyal members and with cold disdain and 
supercilious curiosity by the others. Disguise it 
as we may, the Southern cause was more popular 
in Washington than the cause of the Union, and 
Lincoln and his forthcoming administration were 
reviled generally in Washington society. 

Meanwhile the city was rapidly filling up with 
strangers, some animated by the patriotic desire 
to see the menaced President-elect safely installed 
in the White House, some dominated by idle 
curiosity ; but the majority, probably, moved by a 
selfish desire to serve their country in some official 
capacity. 

Caleb Smith and John P. Usher were then at 
the head of an immense colony of patriots bent 
on expelling the occupants of the Interior Depart- 
ment and rescuing that temple of prolific spoils 
from the dominion of the enemy. The ponderous 
and urbane David Davis, Judge of the Eighth 
IlHnois Circuit, had engaged the most expensive 
suite of rooms at Willard's on the second story, 
corner of the Avenue and Fourteenth Street, four 
apartments distant from the President-elect, so 
that he might be in a comfortable place to re- 
spond to the invitation, which never came, to ad- 
vise as to the early appointments. 

Corydon Beckv/ith, the suave and distinguished 
Democratic lawyer from Chicago, with his wife, 
occupied the next suite, his undisguised object be- 
ing to secure the promotion of his brother, then 
already high in the Commissary Department. 
Big men and extremely small men were there. 



INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT 3^9 

with small and great schemes. Most of them had 
a maximum appointment in view or in incubation, 
but were willing to take something considerably 
less. Judd was there, like Joey Bagstock, '*sly, 
sir; — de-vil-ish sly." His name was on every 
office-hunter's lips. "Where's Judd?" "I'll see 
Judd." "Ask Judd." "Oh, I know Judd." 
"There goes Judd." "Judd !" "Judd !! !" "Judd 
goes pop into the Cabinet." "What did Judd say 
about it?" "Judd looks used up." "Judd'll do 
it." "Judd won't do it." "That's just like Judd." 
"Judd's pretty smart," etc. Davis vainly at- 
tempted alternately to look big with importance 
and anon to appear like a "looker on in Venice," 
but it was no go; he had one of his eyes on any 
portfolio and the other on the comfortable chair 
in the Suprem.e Courtroom, then draped in fu- 
nereal crape. But no message came from the 
throneroom, so near and yet so far, to point the 
way he was to go. 

Mr. Lincoln had written his Inaugural in Jan- 
uary, in an unused back room in the same build- 
ing as his office, with no adventitious aid beyond 
an old desk, one chair, a bottle of ink, a steel pen, 
a volume of Clay's speeches, one of Webster's, 
Jackson's Nullification Proclamation, and the 
Statutes of Illinois, which contained the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. In this primitive situ- 
ation, he prepared his first official utterance on 
plain foolscap paper, carrying it home at night 
as it progressed, and amending it. He finally en- 
grossed it, and when he started to Washington, 
designing that it should not be out of his reach 
during the journey, he committed it to the cus- 
tody of the same old carpetbag he and I had 
started East with but eleven days before. When 



3IO LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

he looked for it at Harrisburg-, however, lo! it 
was gone ! It contained not only his Inaugural 
address but a large bundle of letters and other 
papers of indispensable utility at this supreme 
moment. Here was a mess ! The day of Fate 
was in plain sight, advancing resistlessly with 
rapid strides, and here was this vital document, 
the product of so many free and unexcited hours, 
out of place. And letters, too ! — letters whose ex- 
hibition might turn the world of politics upside 
down — besides other almost indispensable and 
unduplicated documents. Perplexed almost be- 
yond endurance by the several alarming exigen- 
cies which pressed upon him, he privately, and 
without disclosing his anxiety to any but his son 
Robert, searched everywhere. Finally the delin- 
quent satchel turned up in the general baggage 
room at the depot, in a pile of valises, the least 
tempting of them all to a thief, but containing one 
of the great treasures of political literature. 

Lincoln read the Inaugural to Seward and one 
or two others, and to no more. Seward proposed 
some minor changes, which were adopted, and 
this document, destined to a classical renown and 
an imperishable fame, was ready for submission 
to the tribunal of history. 

The Fourth of March arrived, bringing in its 
train a bright, sunny day, as if Nature had en- 
robed itself in spring attire in honor of the re- 
naissance of loyalty to the Union. At 1 1 :o5 
A. M. Messrs. Foote and Pearce, the Senate 
Committee, called at the President's room at the 
Capitol and escorted the venerable outgoing in- 
cumbent to a barouche in waiting, drawn by six 
horses. Driving rapidly to Willard's, they took 
in the President-elect, who, calm and imperturb- 



INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT 311 

able, was waiting, arrayed in his new Inaugura- 
tion suit, with a new spick-and-span hat, and a 
gold-headed cane which some admirer had pre- 
sented to him, and which, apparently, he had not 
learned to handle. A procession was formed con- 
sisting of military and civic societies, and a long 
line of carriages filled with Government digni- 
taries, which moved in stately and dignified pro- 
cession through the Avenue to the Capitol. The 
carriage which contained Mr. Lincoln was 
flanked on both sides by military veterans heavily 
arm.ed. Arriving at the Capitol, the President- 
elect was escorted to the platform which had been 
erected upon the Eastern flight of steps. Here, 
in the presence of an immense concourse of peo- 
ple and attended by the chief dignitaries of the 
Nation, in a clear, emphatic voice and a resolute 
and impressive manner, and with an air and mien 
of perfect self-reliance and self-possession, he de- 
livered the Inaugural Address. 

After Mr. Lincoln had concluded the reading 
of the address, the venerable Chief Justice admin- 
istered the oath, which Mr. Lincoln received sol- 
emnly and with emotion. The Chief Justice ven- 
tured to bestow his benisons, the venerable ex- 
President ofifered his congratulations heartily, 
and the change of administration was accom- 
plished — the renaissance was begun. **01d things 
had passed away, all things had become new." 

Mr. Lincoln reentered the barouche, the ex- 
President followed ; the carriage was driven rap- 
idly to the door of the White House, the moss- 
troopers clattering alongside with clinking 
sabres. The President alighted, sought Mrs. 
Lincoln, who had preceded him and who now 
beamed upon him. The family and two or three 



312 LINCOLN THE CITIZEN 

relatives sat together at luncheon, Mrs. Lincoln 
perfectly radiant with happiness. The President 
appeared relieved. Tad and Willie were jubilant. 
Robert was dignified. 

The life at the White House was begun. 



I 



012025 993 3 



